LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. Copyright No. 

Shelf....X:^3 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



America s Great Men and Their Deeds. 



American Inventions 
and Inventors 

By 

William A. Mowry, A.M., Ph.D. 
and Arthur May Mowry, A.M. 

Authors of " First Steps in the History of our Country,'" and ^' A History of the 

United States, for Schools." 




r ti ^ * Sjlver^^urdett and Company 

New York Boston Chicag-o 



FOR THE STUDY OF AMERICAN HISTORY T-ll^ 

FIRST STEPS IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

By William A. Mowry, A.M., Ph.D., and Arthur May Mo\vry,A.M. 
Pp. 320, profusely illustrated. The narrative of our country as told in 
the stories of 39 great Americans. Introductory price, 60 cents. 

A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, for Schools. 

By William A. Mowry, A.M., Ph.D., and Arthur May Mowry, A.M. 
Pp. 466, highly illustrated. Accurate in statement, clear i.nd graphic 
in style, patriotic and unpartisan in spirit. Introductory price, $1.00. 

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

By Tow^NSEND MacCoun, A.m. Pp. 48, 43 colored maps with text. 
Introductory price, 90 cents. 

HISTORICAL CHARTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

By TowNSEND MacCouA, A.m. 20 charts, 38x40 inches, containing 26 
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ductory price, with supporter, ^15.00. 

Both the " Historical Geography " and the ** Historical Charts " portray the ap- 
pearance of the map of our country after each of its changes until the present. 



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. Copyright, 190S'''''''' '' Copyright* 

By Silver, Burdett and Company 



SECOND O0Py« 



PREFACE. 

A SCHOOL history should set forth such facts, and in such 
an order, as to show the progress of civilization. The great 
lessons of history are found in that line of events in the 
past which exhibits the progress of mankind — the uplift of 
humanity. The record of no other country can present a 
more startling array of forward movements and upward 
tendencies than that of our own land, and in no one direc- 
tion does this upward movement appear quite so clearly as in 
the line of inventions. 

Man's efforts are, first, to overcome nature. Food, 
shelter, and clothing are his primary wants. After these 
are supplied, he rises to higher realms of thought and 
action. Then he nourishes his intellect, exercises his sensi- 
bilities, and provides nutriment for his soul, that it, also, 
may grow. In this book the above logical order is followed. 

It is painfully evident that many school-children dislike 
the study of history. The authors of this book believe that 
this need not be. It is clear that the study should be under- 
taken at an earlier age than is usually the case in our public 
schools. It is not necessary, and oftentimes not desirable, 
that the books of history should be studied as text-books. 
Frequently they should be used as reading books. Such use 
is more likely to develop in the minds of the younger chil- 
dren a love for history. 

This book, while adapted to older persons, has been pre- 
pared with special reference to the needs and capacities of 
children from ten to twelve years of age. It is commended 
to teachers and parents with full confidence that they will 
find it useful, and that the children will be both interested 
and profited by its perusal. 



CONTENTS. 



HEAT. 



CHAPTER 



I. Fire. . 

II. Indian Homes, . 

III. Colonial Homes, 

IV. Chimneys, . 



I. Torches, 

II. Candles, 

III. Whale Oil, 

IV. Kerosene, 



PAGE CHAPTER 




PAGE 


II V. 


Fuel, . 


• • 


• 37 


17 VI. 


Coal, . 


, , 


. 44 


24 VII. 


Matches, 


• 


. 51 


31 








LIGHT. 








61 V. 


Illuminating Gas, 


. 81 


67 ■ VI. 


Electric 


Lighting, 


. 85 


72 VII. 


Lighthouses, 


. 90 


n 









FOOD. 



I. 

II. 

III. 



Uncultivated Foods, 99 
Cultivated Foods, . 104 
Implements for 
Planting, . .111 



IV. Implements for Har- 
vesting, . 

V. Soil 

VI. A Modern Dinner, . 



CLOTHING. 



I. Colonial Conditions, 143 

II. The Cotton Gin, . 148 

III. Cotton, . . .153 

IV. WOOL, . . . .158 



V. Leather, 
VI. Needles, 
VII. The Steam Engine, 



I. By Land, 
II. By Water, . 

III. Stagecoaches, 

IV. Steamboats, 
V. Canals, 



I. Language, . 

II. The Printing Press, 

III. The Postal System, 

IV. Signaling, . 



247 

252 
258 
265 



117 
124 
131 



164 
172 
178 



TRAVEL. 

187 VI. Railroads, . . . 223 

194 VII. Modern Water Trav- 

200 EL, . . . . 229 

207 VIII. Modern Land Travel, 235 

LETTERS. 



V. The Telegraph, . . 270 

VI. The Atlantic Cable, 278 

VII. The Telephone, . . 286 

VIII. Conclusion, . . 292 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Count Rumford . . . . . . . . . . . -. 9 

A New England Kitchen One Hundred Years Ago ..... 10 

A Train Leaving the Station 11 

A Vestal Virgin 14 

Iroquois Long-House 20 

Indian Method of Broiling . 22 

Plying the Axe " 25 

A Colonial Fireplace . . . : 27 

Hauling in a Backlog . 29 

Cooking in a Colonial Kitchen . . . . . . . . .30 

A Franklin Stove ............ 34 

In a Coal Mine 42 

Blacksmith at His Forge .......... 49 

Thomas Carrying Fire 52 

Tinder Box, Flint, and Matches 53 

Thomas A. Edison -59 

Minot Ledge Light, Massachusetts Bay . 60 

Indians Traveling at Night 62 

Ancient Lamps ^65 

Franklin Making Candles .......... 69 

Reading by Candlelight 70 

Whale Fishing 73 

Oil Wells .79 

A Gasometer . . . . " . 83 

Edison's Heroic Act - 86 

Grace Darling . . . . . . ... . . . .94 

Cyrus H. McCorraick 97 

Cutting Sugar Cane in the Hawaiian Islands .98 

Indians Hunting Game . 102 

The Corn Dance ............ 104 

Captain John Smith . 106 

An Ancient Plow ........... 109 

Mowing with Scythes 118 

A Reaper and Binder 120 

The McCormick Reaper » . . . .121 

Threshing with Flail 123 

Colonists in a Shallop . 124 

An Irrigpting Trench 128 

A Rice Field 129 



8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

A Dinner Party 131 

Loading Fish at Gloucester 134 

A Cattle Train 136 

Drying Coffee in Java 139 

Eli Whitney 141 

A Quilting Bee in the Olden Time . . 142 

Tailor and Cobbler 145 

Spinning Wheel 146 

An Old-Fashioned Loom 147 

A Cotton Field ............ 149 

A Cotton Pod , . . . . . . . . . . .150 

The Cotton Gin 151 

President Jackson and Mr. Slater 156 

The Interior of a Modern Cotton Mill 157 

Sheep-Shearing 162 

Dr. Whitman Starting on His Journey 168 

Sewing by Hand . . . . . . . . . . . .173 

An Old Windmill 178 

A Corliss Engine ............ iSi 

Robert Fulton 185 

An Ocean Steamer . 186 

A Man and His Wife Traveling on Horseback igi 

The Bay-Path 193 

Pilgrim Exiles ............. 195 

A Birch- Bark Canoe ^ . . . . 197 

Old-Style Calashes 202 

An Old-Fashioned Stagecoach 204 

Munroe Tavern, Lexington, Mass 205 

Fitch's Steamboat 209 

Collision of the C/<?rw<7«/ and the Sloop .217 

The Erie Canal 221 

Old-Style Railroad Train 227 

A River Tunnel 234 

A Pullman Sleeper 237 

Brooklyn Bridge 239 

The Boston Subway 242 

Electric Car, New York City 243 

Samuel F. B. Morse •. . . .245 

A Modern Printing Press . . * 246 

Ancient Implements of Writing 249 

An Ancient Scribe 251 

A Franklin Press 255 

Postage Stamps ............ 261 

Assorting Mail on the Train 262 

Signaling by Beacon Fires • 266 

Electric Wires 270 

Morse Hears of His Success 274 

Laying an Ocean Cable . • 2S2 

The Great Eastern 283 

A Telephone 287 

Alexander Bell Using a Long-Distance Telephone 2S8 




COUNl RUMFORD. 



SECTION I.-HEAT. 




— -i ■ / •- ^ 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



SECTION I.— HEAT 



CHAPTER I. 



FIRE. 




LL aboard ! " cries the conductor, 
and slowly the long train draws 
out of the San Francisco station 
on its w^ay to Chicago and the 
Atlantic coast. Three sleepers, 
two chair coaches, passenger, 
baggage, and mail cars, loaded 
with travelers, trunks, and 
pouches of letters and papers;, 
we are familiar with the sight 
of these heavy cars and the 
puffing engine which draws 
them. But what makes the 
train move? What power is 

great enough to do this? It is the power of steam, and 

steam is made from water by means of fire. 

Now the long journey across the continent is over, and 

we, are standing on the dock in New York City. Here we 



A TRAIN LEAVING THE STATION. 



12 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

see the steamboat Puritan, thronged with passengers, ready 
to steam away from the wharf on its regular night trip to 
Fall River. For hours, perhaps, we have been watching the 
longshoremen as they have rushed back and forth, loading 
the great vessel with freight for New England. A few 
minutes later, as we see the majestic steamer, hundreds of 
feet long — larger than most city business buildings — slowly, 
but gracefully moving away from the dock, we say to our- 
selves, " Can it be that steam, caused by fire, has power 
enough to make the steamboat move through the water like 
this?" 

While we watch the steamer glide around Castle Garden 
into East River, evening begins to come on ; we must hasten 
uptown. As we pass along Broadway, lights flash out in 
the darkness and our thoughts are again turned to fire and 
steam. We have heard that the source of the electric light 
is in the dynamo, and that steam power is used to turn that 
great machine. The enormous engine, the mammoth boat, 
the brilliant light — all need the power of steam, and nothing 
but fire will produce this steam. What, then, is fire? and is 
its only use that of changing quiet, liquid water into powerful 
steam? Let us see. 

Did you notice that machine shop which we passed when 
we were in Cleveland a few days ago? Did you see those 
furnaces with the huge volumes of flame bursting out of the 
open doors? You know that great heat is necessary to make 
tools and other implements of iron, and all the instruments 
of everyday life that are formed out of metals. Our pens 
and needles, our hoes and rakes, our horseshoes, our stoves 
and furnaces, our registers and the iron of our desks — all de- 
pend upon heat for their production. Fire can do much for 
us. To change water into steam is but one of its powers. 



HEAT — FIRE. I 3 

Fire and heat are behind most of the operations of modern 
life. 

- As we open the door of the house we are met by a cur- 
rent of warm air rushing out into the chilly evening. It is 
the last of October, and in the middle of the day windows 
and doors have been left wide open to let in all the light and 
warmth of the bright sunshine. But it is evening now, and 
the sun has long since sunk below the horizon ; it no longer 
gives us any of its heat. All night the air will grow colder 
and colder, and were we unprotected by clothing we should 
suffer from the chill atmosphere. Even coverings are not 
sufficient to keep the heat of our bodies from passing off into 
the air, just as the warm air rushed out through the open 
hall door. It has been found necessary to warm the air in 
our houses so that the bodily heat, which we need to sustain 
life, may not so easily be lost. The heat which the sun fur- 
nishes us is called natural heat ; that which is produced by 
the skill of man is called artificial heat. 

This artificial heat is used for a fourth purpose also. As 
we have seen, it makes steam for the locomotive, the steam- 
boat, and other engines ; it is necessary in the manufacture 
of tools and various utensils out of iron and other metals ; 
and it warms our houses and schools, our offices and stores. 
It is also used everywhere and by everybody in cooking. 
Had we no fires or artificial heat of some sort we should have 
to eat our meat and fish raw ; we could only mix our meal 
and flour with cold water, which would not be palatable to 
most of us; our vegetables,- uncooked, would fail to satisfy 
us; and many of us would find ourselves limited to fruits 
and nuts, which would be hardly sufficient to keep us in good 
health, to say the least. 

Have 5^ou ever thought that men or human beings are 



14 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



very much like other animals? Have you ever tried to find 
o"ut the important differences between man and what are 
called the lower animals? One of these differences comes 
right in the line of our present thought. Dogs are fond of 
meat, and so are most people ; but dogs do not need to have 
their meat cooked as we do. Horses whinny for their oats 
at night and morning; but they would not care for our favor- 
ite breakfast dish of cooked oatmeal. 
Bears are partly protected from the 
cold by their thick, shaggy cover- 
ings of fur ; but even in very cold 
regions they have no warm fire 
around which to' gather. Man is 
the "only fire-making animal," and 
to this fact he owes much of his 
power. 

. If we read the histoiy of the 
world, and especially the story of 
the earlier life of the different na- 
tions and peoples, we shall find that 
fire was considered by them all to be 
one of the greatest blessings belong- 
ing to man. They thought that the 
gods whom they worshipped also 
treasured fire. The Romans offered sacrifices to Vesta, the 
goddess of the fireplace, and it was the duty of the vestal vir- 
gins to keep a fire always burning on her altar. Among the 
Greeks the hearth or fireplace itself was an objector w^orship. 
These early peoples regarded the blessing of fire as so 
great that they believed it must have originally belonged to 
the gods alone. Many of them had traditions that the gods 
did not permit men in the earliest ages to have any knowl- 




A VESTAL VIRGIN. 



HEAT — FIRE. I 5 

edge or use of fire. Myths or stories have been found 
among the people of Australia, Asia, Europe, and America, 
telling how fire had been stolen from the gods and brought 
down to men. The best of these stories is that of the Greek, 
Prometheus, whose name means "forethought." This an- 
cient mythical hero was supposed to have been the great 
friend and benefactor of mankind. But of all his gifts to 
men the most valuable was the gift of fire. According to 
the old myth, Prometheus went up into Olympus, the Greek 
heaven, and was welcomed by the gods. While there he 
examined the fire of the gods and thought what a blessing it 
would be to mankind. Acting under the advice of Athene, 
the goddess of wisdom, he stole some fire from the sun god, 
concealed it in a hollow reed, and brought it back with him 
to earth. 

In early times there were no matches, and if a fire went 
out it was not easy to kindle it again. Probably the people 
wondered how the fire was made for the first time. They 
knew that it must have been obtained somehow, from some- 
where ; and out of this grew the story of Prometheus among 
the Greeks, and of the other fire stealers, the heroes of other 
peoples in all parts of the globe. 

But all these stories of the fire of the gods and the way in 
which human beings were able to get hold of this priceless 
blessing we now know to be only myths. Students of early 
history are agreed that all men, everywhere, and at all times, 
have had the knowledge and the use of fire. Great differences 
exist between civilized and uncivilized people ; the savages 
of interior Africa seem almost to belong to a different species 
of being from the cultured people of Europe and America ; 
but all are able to warm themselves and to cook their food 
b}'- means of burning fuel. 



1 6 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

Civilized man has better arrangements for kindling his 
fire, better means of obtaining more good from it, and better 
ways for avoiding the smoke and other unpleasant features 
than has uncivilized man. A savage would not understand 
the modern chimney nor a kitchen range. He would be ut- 
terly at a loss to comprehend our modes of heating by the 
hot-air furnace or the coils of steam pipes. The forest pro- 
vides him with all the wood that he needs for his fire, and 
he has little or no knowledge of coal or oil or gas. 

Thus you and I are far in advance of the poor, half clad, 
half warmed savage; we are also in far more comfortable 
circumstances than were our ancestors who came from 
Europe to America two or three hundred years ago. In all 
the ages of the past until within a few hundred years little 
advance had been made in the methods of obtaining artificial 
heat. But since Columbus set sail from Spain, since John 
Cabot first saw the shores of this continent, since John Smith 
made friends with the Indians in Virginia, and William Brad- 
ford guided the lives of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, discover- 
ies and inventions have changed most of our habits and cus- 
toms as well as our surroundings. The methods of heating 
our houses and cooking our food have altered greatly, and 
we cannot fail to be interested in comparing the simple 
wood fires of long ago with the complex ways in which heat 
is now evenly distributed wherever it is wanted. For a lit- 
tle while, then, let us turn our thoughts to the primitive 
forms of heating and cooking which were common three cen- 
turies ago, and see in what ways the modern systems of pro- 
viding artificial heat have been developed. 



CHAPTER II. 

INDIAN HOMES. 

Our homes and their surroundings are so familiar to us 
that it is hard for us to realize that our country was not 
always as it is now. Let us think about it. Have you seen 
any changes near where you live since you can remember? 
Have any new houses been built? Do you know of any old 
buildings that have been torn down in order that larger or 
better ones might take their places? Have you watched men 
making a new street or road, or, perhaps, working upon an 
old road to make it better? If you have, then you can think 
back to a time when some house that you can see to-day was 
not there ; a time when there were not so many roads nor 
such good streets as now. Can you think back still further 
to a time when the house in which you live had not been 
built? when the street in front of your house had not been 
made? Can you imagine a time, still further back, when 
none of the houses in your city or village were standing? 
when there were no streets at all within sight of the place 
where you live? Then it will not be so very hard to think 
of the time, four hundred years ago, when there were no 
houses of wood, brick, or stone, such as we now see, any- 
where in this country ; when there was not a carriage road 
nor a street of any kind in the whole United States. We 
will try to imagine how this country looked before any white 
people lived in it, and before the cities and towns and vil- 



l8 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

lages and farms and ranches, that are so familiar to us, had 
been begun. 

Four hundred years ago John Cabot sailed across the 
Atlantic Ocean and saw this country for the first time. As 
his little vessel moved along the coast, he looked upon bays 
and mouths of rivers which were very much as they are to- 
day. The peninsulas, the capes, and the islands were in the 
same places that they now are. They were, however, almost 
entirely covered with woods. Here and there were fields of 
grass, through which blue streams were flowing; but the 
larger part of what is now New England and the other At- 
lantic States was covered with thick forests. The trees were 
large and close together; their branches had never been cut 
off, and grew close to the ground. Shrubs and bushes filled 
all the space that was left between the larger trees, and made 
it almost impossible for any one to pass through. Wild ani- 
mals had made paths for themselves, but if people had at- 
tempted to use these paths they would have been obliged to 
get down on their hands and knees and crawl through them. 
The rivers and the smaller streams of water were the best 
roads in those days ; for unless they were shallow or flowed 
too swiftly down the rapids, boats could quite easily be 
pushed up stream as well as be carried down by the current. 

In this country, covered with forests, were there only 
wild animals? Were there no human beings: no men, nor 
women, nor children? No white men lived in New Eng- 
land ; the city of New York had not even been thought of ; 
Baltimore and Savannah were impassable forests; and the 
great West was only a hunting ground. But the red men 
or American Indians did live in this country and were its 
only owners. 

The Indians did not live in many roomed houses of wood 



HEAT — INDIAN HOMES. 1 9 

or brick or stone ; they never built roads or streets ; nor did 
they ride in carriages. If they wished to go from one place 
to another they used canoes on the rivers as far as they could ; 
if they wished to cross the land from one stream to another 
they made a foot path, called a trail. Sometimes a trail was 
broad enough to permit a canoe to be carried. Thus the In- 
dians could travel long distances without growing tired from 
much walking. 

The Indians must have had dwelling places to protect 
them from the cold and the storms which were as common 
then as now. Many tribes of Indians w^ere in the habit of 
moving frequently from place to place, and for this reason 
their homes were not built for permanent use, but were 
made of materials that could be quickly put together. The 
Indians that lived in Canada and New England were more 
roving than those of New York ; therefore their houses were 
very simple. They were long and narrow, with rounded roofs, 
and covered on the tops and sides with matting that could 
be readily removed. 

The Iroquois, dwelling south of Lake Ontario, were a lit- 
tle more civilized than their neighbors, and built more per- 
manent houses. Their dwellings were very long, from one 
to two hundred feet in length, and usually about thirty feet 
wide. The frames were made of long sticks or poles, set 
firmly in the ground ; other poles formed the roof, with two 
sloping sides, over which were laid large strips of elm bark. 
These houses had a door at each end, with no windows, and 
light entered only through the doors and the large openings 
in the roof. The openings were made at frequent intervals 
to allow the escape of the smoke from the fires directly 
beneath. 

Although the Indian dwellings varied greatly among the 



20 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



different tribes, in none of them did a family live by itself. 
Usually twenty or more families dwelt together in each of 
the Iroquois "long houses." A building planned for twenty 
families had ten stalls, or open closets as they might be 
called, arranged along each side. An open passageway ran 
the entire length of the house from door to door, in which 
were built five fires at equal distances. Each fire belonged 

to the four families 
whose stalls — two on 
each side — opened 
directly toward it. 

Now let us im- 
agine ourselves in 
one of these long 
houses, and let us 
try to see just how 
everything looked. 
Let us suppose that 
it is a little after 
sunset on a cold, 
stormy winter even- 
ing. We are glad 
to get under any covering in order to be somewhat protected 
from the biting wind and the stinging sleet. We have been 
welcomed by the Indians, have been made the guests of 
one of the families, and have been given something to eat. 
Supper over, we are able to look about us and to think 
whether we should consider ourselves cosy and comfortable 
if this were our own home. 

The first thing that we observe is the fire, as it snaps and 
hisses. How warm it is, and how good it feels as we toast 
our cold hands and feet before it ! But somehow we begin 




IROQUOIS LONG HOUSE. 



HEAT — INDIAN HOMES. 21 

to wish that we were back beside our own stove. Then our 
eyes would not ache from the smoke. Why does it not go 
out at the top? It tries to, but the wind blows it back into 
the house so that, at times, it fills every corner, blinding our 
eyes, stifling our breath, and covering us with cinders from 
head to foot. 

But as we sit, Turk fashion, squatted before the fire, we 
notice that we are being slowly covered up by something else 
than cinders. Although all the smoke does not go out at the 
opening, it seems as if almost all the snow did come in. At 
times it falls gently, slowly sifting into every fold in our 
clothing, into our eyes and ears, and gradually covering 
everything with its mantle of white. At other times a 
strong gust of wind sweeps down into the room, almost put- 
ting out the fire, and chilling us through and through in 
spite of the roaring blaze. 

Now cold shivers begin to run down our backs. Besides, 
our limbs are growing tired from sitting so long in the un- 
usual position. So we think that we will try a change, and 
we decide to lie down at full length with our faces to the 
fire. It is not easy to move into the new position, because 
our neighbors are crowded so close to us , but we finally suc- 
ceed. In a very few minutes our feet begin to ache with the 
cold and our faces seem burning up with the heat. Shall 
we change again, and for a time let our heads get cool while 
we warm our feet? We cannot keep this up all night, but 
we would need to do so if we tried to be really comfortable. 

In this way the Indians lived. They had no beds, no 
separate chambers, no kitchen, dining room, nor parlor. In 
this one room, if it can be called a room, all the families ate 
and slept. Around these fires they spent their time while 
in the house. Here they lay stretched out for sleep, with 



22 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



skins of animals under them as a slight protection from the 
damp ground. They did not spend much time in changing 
their clothes, for they practically wore the same night and 
day. They really needed only the roof to cover them and 
the fire to warm them. Though the fire warmed them un- 
evenly, though the smoke was uncomfortable, though the 
cold, the snow, and the rain came in at the opening and all 
around the sides of the house, yet the Indians had a cover- 
ing, they had a fire, 
and they were to a 
great degree content- 
ed, and happy. 

They were used to 
this life; they knew 
no other. Even after 
the white men came 
and the Indians had 
seen them in their 
houses, they had no 
desire to change their 
mode of living. 




INDIAN METHOD OF BROILING. 



"Ugh!" grunted an 
old redskin, as he studied the white man's ways; — "ugh! 
Injun make a little fire and set close to him ; white man 
make a big fire and set way off." 

The Indians needed food as well as covering. Their 
cooking must have been quite different from that which is 
done on a large modern kitchen range. They had no domes- 
tic animals except the dog; no cows nor pigs, no hens nor 
turkeys. They were compelled to hunt wild animals if 
they wanted meat. This meat they usually broiled ; not on 
a broiler or a toaster, but upon slats or strips of wood placed 



HEAT — INDIAN HOMES. 23 

above the fire. Fish was cooked in the same way. Some- 
times they boiled the meat. For this they usually had 
wooden dishes, which could not be put over the fire. These 
were filled with water, into which red hot stones were placed. 
When the water had been heated the food was put in it to 
be cooked. 

We should now have some idea of the manner of life 
among the Indians. We have learned a little about their 
houses and their habits; we have seen how they made their 
fires and did their cooking ; we have heard about their trails 
and their canoes, and the way in which they traveled from 
place to place. Thus lived the American Indians or red 
men three or four hundred years ago, and thus they would 
probably be living to-day if Columbus or some one else had 
not discovered America; if the English, the French, and the 
Spaniards had not come across the ocean ; if farms and vil- 
lages, towns and cities had not sprung up all over the coun- 
try ; if the white men had not taken much of the land over 
which the Indians had roamed for centuries; and if the In- 
dians had not learned much from the white men which has 
greatly changed their conditions. 



CHAPTER III. 
COLONIAL HOMES. 

The Indians, seated in their long community houses 
around their wood fires, ranging over their hunting ground 
seeking fresh meat, or stealthily creeping through the forest 
hoping to surprise some human enemy, at last found that 
they could no longer have this entire continent to them- 
selves. More than four hundred years ago Europeans dis- 
covered the " New World " and began to explore it. More 
than three hundred years ago the Spaniards conquered the 
Indians in Mexico and made a settlement in Florida. Nearly 
three hundred years ago the French began to build homes in 
Canada, the Dutch in New York, and the English in Virginia 
and New England. 

These white men, with their wives and children, crossed 
the Atlantic Ocean in the small vessels of those days, and 
built villages and cleared the land for farms. Their settle- 
ments were generally near the seacoast or the great rivers. 
The pioneers were thus nearer one another, and could the 
more readily hasten to each other's assistance in case of need. 

The newcomers were not alike in appearance or habits. 
The French had different customs from the Spaniards. 
They not only spoke a different language, but they wore 
different kinds of clothes, tilled the soil in a different way, 
and lived in houses of different styles. The Dutch were 
quite unlike the English. Then, again, the life of the Eng- 
lish in Virginia was different from life in New England : in 



HEAT — COLONIAL HOMES. 



25 



the former colony some of the settlers were wealthy, owned 
large plantations, and lived at long distances from one another ; 
in the latter the colonists had more nearly equal possessions, 
occupied smaller farms, and lived close together. 

Although the colonists thus had differing habits and cus- 
toms, in many respects they were much alike. They had 
come to a country where everything was new. No mills nor 
factories were run by the streams ; no shops made clothing 
or farming tools ; no stores 
sold furniture or groceries. 
Everything that the colon- 
ists needed must be either 
brought across the ocean or 
roughly made by them- 
selves. Of course only the 
rich could afford the ex- 
pense of bringing heavy 
articles three thousand 
miles in sailing vessels; 
therefore a large part of 

what the colonists wore or ate or used for furniture or build- 
ings was rude and of home manufacture. A description of 
the mode of life in one section of the country will give some- 
thing of an idea of how the colonists lived in other sections. 

Almost the first thing that was necessary for the colonist 
to do, as soon as he had determined where he was to live, 
was to build his house ; he began at once to fell the trees. 
The axe was one of the most important of his possessions 
and he soon learned to use it with great skill. If he needed 
his house immediately he usually built it of rough, unsplit 
logs, filling the spaces with clay and covering the roof with 
thatch. 




PLYING THE AXE 



26 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

There is a story told of a log house which was built in 
the early part of one winter. The trees were cut when their 
trunks were frozen, and were laid in proper position to form 
the sides of the cabin. The stone chimney was built, and 
the house was ready. Day after day the great fireplace sent 
out its heat into the single room, until the sap in the logs was 
melted and little shoots with tender leaves began to form, 
which in time, at the ends of the logs nearest the fire, grew 
into long twigs. The logs had remained frozen on the out- 
side, but had thawed within — a pleasant suggestion of the 
cheer and comfort found in a well warmed house. 

If the newcomer had neighbors who could shelter his 
family for a time, he would split the logs and make a house 
somewhat tighter and better protected from cold and storm. 
After a time lumber mills were built and the logs were 
sawed into planks and boards. Many of the earliest New 
England houses contained but one room with an attic. The 
house was entered directly from out-of-doors, and was lighted 
by windows set wuth very small panes of glass or oiled paper. 
In one corner was the staircase, which sometimes was merely 
a ladder or perhaps a few cleats nailed on the framework. 
The furniture was meagre and most of it rudely made. 

Can we see any improvement in this rough cottage over 
the Indian long house? It was more permanent; it was 
tighter and warmer; it was the abode of one family; it w^as 
a real home. In another respect the comfort of the log cabin 
was greatly increased: it had an enclosed fireplace and a 
chimney. 

Some years ago fireplaces were seldom seen in our dwel- 
lings. In many of the old houses, in which the fireplaces were 
as old as the houses themselves, they were never used and 
were either boarded up or carefully screened from view. But 



HEAT — COLONIAL HOMES. 



27 




more recently they have come into use again, and now seldom 
is a well arranged house built without one or more open fire- 
places. We are then — most of us — acquainted with this small 
opening in the side or the corner of the room, in which small 
logs of wood burn upon the andirons or a bed of coals upon 
the grate. However, this modern grate or hearth is very 
unlike the huge fireplace of one and two centuries ago. 

In the houses in which your great-grandmother and her 
mother and grandmother and great-grandmother lived, the 
fireplace was not con- 
fined to a corner of 
the room, nor did it 
burn sticks fifteen or 
eighteen inches long. 
In the oldest house 
now standing in 
Rhode Island the fire- 
place was nearly ten 

feet long and about four feet in depth. Its back and sides 
were of stone, nearly two feet thick, and the chimney, thirteen 
feet by six, did not begin to narrow, as it went upward, until 
it reached the roof. This fire place made an excellent play- 
house when the fire was out, and children found great delight 
in watching the stars from their seat in the chimney corner. 

At first this open fireplace, with the fire burning in the 
centre, was the only means for cooking which our ancestors 
possessed. When they were able to build larger houses, 
with two, four, or eight rooms, even two stories high, they 
still had the great hearths; not one alone, but one in each 
of the principal rooms, and sometimes in the chambers. As 
time went on, stone or brick ovens were built by the side of 
the fireplaces, and frequently tin or " Dutch " ovens were 



A COLONIAL FIREPLACE. 



28 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

brought across the ocean and used in case of need. Let us 
look into one of these old houses on a Saturday, or " baking 
day," and notice some of the pleasures and inconveniences of 
cooking in olden time. 

When Mother Brown rises at half past four in the morn- 
ing she dresses quickly, for the coals, which had been care- 
fully covered up, have given out little heat during the bitter, 
cold night. Before she can wash her hands and face she 
must start up the fire, for all the water in the house is 
frozen. She carefully rakes off the ashes from the coals 
which are still "alive," deftly lays on them a few shavings 
and pieces of bark, and, when they begin to burn brightly, 
piles upon them small and then larger sticks of wood. Now 
Father Brown and John, the hired man, who have come in 
from doing the chores, lift on to the fire one of the six foot 
logs, three or four feet in circumference, which have been 
previously brought in. Then Mother Brown calls the chil- 
dren. Ruth, the eldest, is already nearly dressed ; Mehitable, 
just in her teens, is soon ready ; while Polly, " the baby, " near- 
ly eight years old, finds it hard work to crawl out from between 
the sheets. The boys are even harder to rouse, for mother 
has to call Nathaniel, aged eleven, three times before he 
appears, and Joseph, two years younger, is slower still. 

We will not stop to notice the breakfast, which is eaten, 
and the dishes washed, long before the sun rises. Now the 
outside door opens and in comes the old white horse, hauling 
a great backlog. John unhitches the chain and rolls the log 
upon the fire. This done, the horse goes out at the door 
opposite the one he entered. Father Brown brings in several 
armfuls of brush and heavier sticks, and throws them down 
near the fireplace. 

As this is baking day, the oven must be made ready. 



HEAT — COLONIAL HOMES. 



29 



The great brick oven, one side of which makes also one side 
of the fireplace, is filled with the brush and light wood, 
which is soon burning briskly. For an hour the fire is kept 
up, new wood being thrown in when necessary ; then it is 
allowed to go out. Meanwhile Mother Brown and Ruth are 
busy — mixing and rolling, sifting rye and Indian meal, stir- 




HAULING IN A BACKLOG. 



ring up eggs, and adding milk and butter. By the time the 
oven is heated the cooks are ready to use it ; and Mehitable 
rakes out the coals and ashes with a long stick, shaped like 
a shepherd's crook. 

First the pans of "rye 'n' Injun" bread are laid in the 
oven, away back at the farther end. Then the "pandowdy " 
or great apple pudding and the " Injun " pudding are placed 
in front of the bread. While the bread and the puddings 
are baking, two tin ovens are brought in and prepared for 
use. These Dutch ovens are mere sheets of metal curved 



30 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



around into more than half a circle, with the opening placed 
toward the fire. A long iron rod runs through from side to 
side of the oven on which the meat for roast is to be spitted. 
Mother Brown removes one of the spits and thrusts it 
through a piece of beef, and in the same way spits a fat 
turkey on the other. Here is work for little Polly, upon 
whom rests the task of frequently turning the spit so that 
the meat is evenly roasted. 

Later in the day, when the bread is baked, the oven is 
heated again and filled with pies — apple, mince, squash, and 

pumpkin. By the 
time these are baked 
the day is done. The 
coals on the hearth 
are covered with 
ashes and the tired 
cooks gladly retire 
for the night. 

On other days 
meat is boiled in pots 
that are hung from 
the crane, a long. 




COOKING IN A COLONIAL KITCHEN. 



swinging, iron rod 
which reaches directly over the fire or may be turned out 
into the room. Upon the hearth potatoes are baked, corn is 
roasted, and other primitive forms of cooking are used. We 
have made a long step from the Indian's open fire and his 
simple cooking to the brick and tin ovens and the metal pots 
and kettles of our ancestors ; but is it not a longer step to 
the coal, oil, and gas ranges of to-day? 



CHAPTER IV. 

CHIMNEYS. 

Remembering our experience in the Indian long house — 
the discomfort of the smoke and the opening in the roof — we 
shall understand another great improvement in the colonist's 
house. Even the log cabin had its chimney. The rising 
column of hot air from the fire, carrying the smoke with it, 
is confined between walls of stone or brick, and the room is 
fairly free from smoke. Why did not the Indian build a 
chimney? The temporary nature of his dwelling may have 
been a partial reason; but the red man's lack of civilization 
was doubtless the most effective cause. Even many so-called 
civilized nations built their houses without chimneys, and in 
fact this convenience is but a few centuries old. 

The ancient Greeks are praised for their high civilization, 
and yet they w^re little better off than the savage Indians 
of the New World in the methods of heating their houses. 
Neither the Greeks nor the Romans had chimneys for their 
dwellings. It is true that Greece and Italy are warmer 
countries than England or most of the United States, and 
doors and windows could be left open with less discomfort 
than with us. Much of the smoke might thus escape, but 
enough doubtless remained to be unpleasant. The Greeks 
refrained from carving the rooms in which fires were built, 
for they realized that such ornamentation would soon be dis- 
colored by soot. 

After Greece had been conquered .by the Romans and 



32 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

Rome had been overthrown by the Germanic tribes, much of 
the ancient civilization was lost and the " Dark Ages " fol- 
lowed. During this period the people throughout Europe 
made their fires in holes in the centre of the room, under an 
opening in the roof — just as we have seen that the Indians 
did. When the family went to bed at night they covered 
the hole in the roof with a board and also threw ashes over 
the coals, to prevent the wooden house from catching fire 
while they slept. It was the custom in every town, for many 
centuries, to ring the curfew or " cover-fire " bell each night, 
warning the inhabitants to cover their fires, put out their 
lights, and go to bed. 

The first chimneys were probably built in Northern Italy 
about seven hundred years ago. The story is told that the 
Lord of Padua went to Rome in 1368 and found no chim- 
ney in his hotel. The Romans still held to the custom 
of kindling their fires in openings in the ground in the 
middle of the room. The Lord of Padua, longing for the 
comforts to which he was accustomed, sent to Padua for 
carpenters and masons, and had them build two chimneys 
like those at home. On the top of these he had his coat 
of arms affixed. 

Gradually chimneys came into use throughout Europe, 
and when the colonists came to America they built them as 
a matter of course. As we have seen, the fireplaces were 
mammoth, and the chimneys therefore were also of great size ; 
and for this reason, although the discomfort from the smoke 
was less than in the Indian long houses, it was not wholly 
avoided. For centuries, however, people had been used to 
the smoke, which occasionally poured back into the room in- 
stead of going up the chimney, and it did not occur to them, 
any more than to thexed men, that it could be avoided. Not 



HEAT — CHIMNEYS. 33 

until a New England boy, who was then living in England, 
began to study into the cause of smoking chimneys was any 
relief obtained. 

Benjamin Thompson was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, 
and had just come to manhood when the American Revolution 
broke out. Partly owing to certain family connections, he 
took the side of King George III., and went to England. 
After the war was over he went to Bavaria, entered the ser- 
vice of the king, and became his chamberlain. He rose 
through various positions until he became minister of war, 
and was made Count Rumford. He remained in Bavaria a 
few years, then lived for a time in England, and spent his 
last days in Paris. 

Both in Bavaria and in England, Count Rumford devoted 
himself to science and the improvement of the conditions of 
his fellow men. It would be interesting to know the steps 
that he took and the good that he did, but we can here notice 
only some of his improvements in the methods of heating 
houses. As a scientist he was asked to " cure " smoking chim- 
neys, and he succeeded so well that he once said he had 
"cured " more than five hundred in London alone. 

He found out the simple fact that smoke will readily go up 
a chimney unless there is something to stop it. All that 
was necessary was to discover the trouble and remove it. In 
nearly all of the five hundred chimneys nothing more was 
needed than to make the lower part of the chimney and the 
fireplace of the right form and size. One firm of builders 
was kept constantly employed carrying out his suggestions. 
Not only did he " cure " the chimneys, but he also prevented 
the waste of much heat. In accordance with his directions 
the square fireplace was changed so that the sides made a 
greater angle with the back and would therefore reflect more 
3 



34 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



heat into the room. He also made the space about the 
fire smaller, thus rendering the air hotter and therefore 
more ready to rush up the chimney, carrying more of the 
smoke with it. Count Rumford's ideas have been generally 
followed since his day, and now fireplaces seldom give out 
smoke into the room while they furnish more heat. 

Count Rumford next took up the problem of improving 
stoves. Before we consider his improvements, however, we 

must note something about the 
first stoves. Another Massa- 
chusetts boy, born nearly half 
a century before Benjamin 
Thompson, also became a sci- 
entist, inventor, and discoverer. 
Benjamin Franklin was a trav- 
eler and in many other re- 
spects was like Count Rumford. 
But he chose to go with the 
colonies when they revolted 
from Great Britain, and he gave 
all his services to his fellow 
countrymen. A few years be- 
fore the birth of Thompson, Franklin made an invention 
which was the first improved method of heating rooms. 
There had been so-called German stoves before his day, 
but they were not much used in this country. 

It was in 1742 that Franklin, while in Philadelphia, de- 
vised the "Franklin stove" or "Pennsylvania fireplace." It 
consisted of iron sides, back and top, and w^as entirely open 
in front. A flue was arranged in the back which connected 
with the chimney to carry off the smoke. This movable fire- 
place was designed to burn wood, comparatively small logs 







A FRANKLIN STOVE. 



HEAT — CHIMNEYS. 35 

being" used. It had many advantages over the stone fire- 
place. It was set up nearer the middle of the room, thus 
sending heat out in all directions and warming the entire 
room. It saved much of the heat which had previously 
passed directly up the chimney and been lost. In the Penn- 
sylvania fireplace this heat warmed the iron on the top of the 
stove and at the back, as well as the flue itself, all of which 
warmed the air in the room. Saving the heat saved wood 
also. Franklin himself said: 

" My common room, I know, is made twice as warm as 
it used to be, with a quarter of the wood I formerly consumed 
there." 

Franklin was offered a patent for his device by the gover- 
nor of Pennsylvania, but he declined it. He declared that 
inasmuch as " we enjoy great advantages from the inventions 
of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others 
by any invention of ours." Unfortunately, however, the peo- 
ple did not obtain from his generosity all the advantages that 
Franklin expected, for a London iron manufacturer made 
some slight changes in the pattern, not improving the stove 
in the least, and obtained a patent. From the sale of these 
stoves he made what was called "a small fortune." 

Franklin's fireplace was but the first in a long series of 
inventions that have brought to us the stove of to-day. The 
great merit in his work was the idea of giving up the stone 
fireplace for one of iron. Changes in the form and shape of 
the stove have followed as a matter of course. No special 
credit is due to any one else, unless it be to Count Rumford, 
who, after curing the chimneys, made a cook stove with 
an oven. Then, for the first time since men knew how to 
cook over a fire, cooking could be carried on and the cook be 
protected from the direct heat of the fire. 



36 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

Thus we come to the modern house with its modern 
stoves. No longer have we but one method of heating a 
dwelling. Sometimes a stove is set up in each of the rooms. 
Sometimes a larger stove is placed in the cellar, and this fur- 
nace heats air that is carried by large pipes or flues to the 
rooms, where the heated air comes out through registers. 
Sometimes a furnace in the cellar heats water, and hot water 
or steam is sent through small pipes, and passing through 
coils or radiators gives out heat. Besides, the cooking range 
is found in most kitchens. 

All these systems of heating houses exist instead of the 
old-fashioned fireplace. Even when the modern grate is 
built, it is usual to find a register or steam coil on the op- 
posite side of the room, because the open fire is apt to warm 
one side of the room only. It is pleasant, however, to look 
into a blazing fire, and we are sometimes almost willing to 
have the heat unevenly distributed if only we can watch the 
flames. 

Some form of the stove, however, is our main dependence, 
and its various developments have been due, generally, to the 
desire of being freed from the discomforts of the old time 
methods. Perhaps also the growing scarcity of wood and 
the discovery of coal have had some effect upon the develop- 
ment of the stove ; but that we must leave to another chapter. 



CHAPTER V. 

FUEL. 

"What do you burn in the stoves in your houses? " was 
asked of a class of schoolchildren in a small Pennsylvania 
town. Hands went up in every direction ; one said "kero- 
sene oil " ; two others shouted " gas " ; a few replied " wood " ; 
most of the class answered "coal." Then the teacher made 
further inquiries to learn why these different substances were 
used. The three who answered gas and oil agreed that coal 
was burned in other stoves in their houses, but that oil and 
gas stoves were used also because they were so convenient. 

When the question was asked why coal was used, instantly 
the answer was given that coal was the best thing to burn ; 
everybody burned it. Now this was not quite true, but Miss 
Turner, the teacher, instead of immediately correcting the 
error, turned to the pupils who had answered "wood," and 
inquired why they used wood. One said, "We haven't any 
coal " ; another thought that it was because wood kindled 
more easily than coal ; a third was sure that he was right — 
"We don't have to buy wood; coal costs money." 

Now this boy had the correct idea. He lived in the coun- 
try, though near the town. His father owned a large farm, 
a part of which was still forest land ; he could cut his own 
wood, and therefore did not buy coal. After a few more 
questions the teacher discovered that all those who burned 
wood lived some little distance from town. 

Then she turned to the class again and asked them if they 



38 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

could now tell why the town families used coal instead of 
wood. One said, "We do not own forests." Another 
thought that it was because there were not trees enough. 
A third shook his hand wildly and shouted, " Coal is cheaper 
than wood ! " A shy little girl ventured to suggest, " Because 
coal is better than wood; it lasts longer." 

" You have each of you given a good reason," Miss Turner 
answered. " Coal is cheaper than wood here in the town be- 
cause wood is growing more and more scarce. Many of your 
parents prefer coal because with it the fire needs less atten- 
tion. But the coal dealers charge more to carry coal out into 
the country, and those who still own forests find it cheaper 
to burn their own wood. What sort of replies would I have 
received if I had asked the same questions of children in 
Pennsylvania Colony, or in any of the colonies, one hundred 
and fifty or two hundred years ago? " 

The children had studied history somewhat. They knew 
the story of Columbus and his discoveries ; they had read of 
the Pilgrims and the Puritans; they could have answered 
questions concerning John Smith and Henry Hudson; and 
they were especially familiar with William Penn and the 
Quakers, with George Washington and Braddock's defeat. 
But not one of them remembered that he had ever been told 
anything about the fires of the colonists. 

There was a pause for a time ; then one boy asked, " Didn't 
they burn just what we burn?" After another pause the 
shy little girl asked, "Didn't they have more forests then 
than now?" Before the teacher could reply, a boy said, 
" Perhaps they did not have any coal." 

The children had thus thought it out for themselves, and 
they were right. Miss Turner then told them that it was 
many years after the time of Columbus or Hudson or Penn 



HEAT — FUEL. 39 

before coal mines were discovered in this country or coal 
used. She added that almost all the country, from Maine to 
Georgia and westward across the Alleghany Mountains, was 
covered with thick forests when the colonists crossed the 
Altantic Ocean. 

" What do you suppose our ancesters thought of these 
forests? Were they glad to see them, or did they wish that 
they covered less ground? " asked the teacher. 

Most of the children answered that the forests must have 
been of great value to the colonists ; they would not have to 
pay anything for fuel. 

"Can you raise vegetables or grain in the woods?" was 
Miss Turner's next question. 

Then the pupils began to see that the forests were hin- 
drances as well as helps. The teacher told them that they 
gave the colonists more wood than was needed for fires and 
for lumber. She added that every acre of ground that they 
wished to plant with Indian corn or rye, with potatoes or 
squashes, must first be freed from the trees. Before the 
land could be plowed it must be cleared. If, then, the trees 
furnished more wood than could be used, it was natural for 
the farmer to burn the trees and stumps in the fields. 

If there had been but few settlers and if they had been 
widely scattered over a large territory, no harm would have 
resulted. But the colonists came over by the thousands and 
had large families of children. By the time the country had 
been settled a hundred years, great gaps had been made in 
the forests. A few of the most foresighted of the colonists 
began to think about the future and to wonder what they 
would do for fuel if the wood should give out. In fact, trees 
began to be scarce in the neighborhood of the larger towns, 
and firewood as well as lumber became expensive. 



40 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

"Suppose that all the forests in this country had been 
destroyed," the class was asked, "what would the people 
have done for fuel? " 

" Used coal," replied a boy from a back seat. 

"Yes," said Miss Turner, "if there were any coal, and if 
the colonists knew where to find it and how to use it. But 
what is this coal and where does it come from? " 

" We owe all our knowledge of the origin of coal to the 
geologists, who have made a careful study of the surface of 
the earth," continued Miss Turner. " They tell us that there 
was a time when human beings did not live on the earth ; when 
not even animals that need to breathe the air could exist. 
The atmosphere which surrounded the earth in those days 
was different from the air which we breathe. We need the 
oxygen that is in our air to sustain life ; poor ventilation in 
our rooms or halls soon renders them uncomfortable and 
often causes our heads to ache. The reason for this is the 
presence in the air of too large a quantity of a gas called car- 
bonic acid gas; an extra amount of it makes the air unfit to 
breathe, but a certain amount is necessary to sustain plant 
life. 

" In the coal-forming or carboniferous age the atmosphere 
around the earth contained less oxygen than at present and 
great quantities of carbonic acid gas. For this reason, as I 
have said, animals did not exist, but plants — large shrubs, 
great ferns, and huge trees — lived and grew vigorously. If 
we have ever seen thick woods we need only imagine all the 
bushes and trees of the forest to be of enormous size in order 
to have some idea of the vegetable growth of the carbonifer- 
ous age. The earth was preparing vast quantities of fuel to 
be ready, thousands of years later, for the millions of men 
that were to come. 



HEAT— FUEL. 4I 

" The growth of the forests was but one step in the pre- 
paration of coal. The second step was the submerging of 
the forests, covering them with water as if at the bottom of the 
sea. Then the streams brought gravel, sand, and mud into 
this ocean, and these were hardened into clay and sandstone 
by the pressure of the water, perhaps aided by the heat of 
the earth itself. The trees and ferns were bent down and 
pressed together and driven into the most compact condition 
possible. 

" But again earthquakes came and the water disappeared. 
The layer of clay and sandstone was covered with soil which 
became dry enough to produce other forests, growing as rank 
as the first. These were again overwhelmed and covered 
first with water, then with rocks and soil, only to be lifted 
again for another growth. This process was repeated in 
some cases many times, as we can see with a little study." 

Here Miss Turner stopped and said : " Next Saturday, if 
it is pleasant, we will have our annual spring picnic. We 
will go to a new place this time. We will try Rowland's 
Grove, and then in the afternoon w^e will go down into the 
Jefferson mine and see what it is like." 

We have not time to read about the picnic, nor of the 
interest that the class showed before the appointed Saturday, 
as w^ell as all the forenoon of that day. Nor can we tell how 
the children went down the shaft of the mine, and how they 
were at first so quiet that hardly a word was said. The 
teacher showed them a layer of coal in the mine which w^as 
about three feet thick. Just above it was a rock which was 
different from the coal. This they were told was sandstone, 
the hardened sand which had been heaped upon the forests 
so many thousand years before. Then below the coal w^as 
another rock which was entirely unlike either the coal or 



42 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



the sandstone. This was the seat-stone, the rock made out 
of the soil in which the forest had grown. Then below 
this they found three more layers, sandstone, coal, and 

seat-stone, and so on until 
the bottom of the mine 
was reached. 

By this time the chil- 
dren were ready to ask 
questions. 

"Oh, Miss Turner, 
what is this curious-look- 
ing thing in this part of 
the seat-stone?" asked 
one of the boys. 

Miss Turner replied: 
" That is a fossil. It is 
part of a root of a tree, 
and has retained its shape 
and appearance all these 
thousands and thousands 
of years." 
One of the miners who had been listening to the conver- 
sation said: "If you will step this way, madam, I can show 
you the whole of a tree-trunk in the coal." 

The children eagerly crowded around as the miner showed 
the fossilized trunk of a tree still standing just as it grew, 
with its roots in the seat-stone and its top in the sandstone 
above the coal — for here the layer of coal was several feet in 
thickness. 

A few minutes afterward, as the children were looking 
carefully at the sides of the mine to see if they could find more 
fossils, the shy little girl said quietly to the teacher: " I think 




IN A COAL MINE. 



HEAT — FUEL. 43 

that I have found something, Miss Turner; won't you please 
see?" 

She led the way to a trunk which showed the various 
stages in the process of change. One end was still almost 
like wood, the middle part was a very soft brown coal, while 
the other end was true coal. 

" That helps us to understand more about the way in 
which the forests were changed to coal," said Miss Turner. 
" Now here is one more proof that coal was formed out of 
wood." 

The teacher picked up a piece of coal and broke it with 
a hammer. Then she showed on the new surface some 
patches of a black substance. " Does not that look like char- 
coal? " she asked. "You know that charcoal is wood partly 
burned." 

Thus the class learned how nature, ages and ages ago, 
began to prepare for the use of man a fuel which seems inex- 
haustible, is superior to wood in many respects, and is freely 
distributed in various portions of the world. This coal, 
which has taken the place of wood to a great extent in fur- 
nishing heat for our houses and stores, is found in large 
quantities in the United States, but was not mined or used 
here until the middle of the last century. 



CHAPTER VI. 
COAL. 

The iise of coal for heating purposes is so familiar to every 
one nowadays that probably few have ever thought about the 
time when it was unknown. Coal was as plentiful three 
thousand years ago as it is now. Layers and beds of the 
fuel existed just under the surface of the ground, and in 
many places cropped out through it. But the stones were 
merely "black rocks," and the idea that rocks would burn 
was too absurd to occur to any one. We may well wonder 
how it was first discovered that coal would burn. 

Professor Greene suggests a possible explanation of this 
discovery. "There is in coal a hard, yellow, brassy mineral 
which flies in the fire and not infrequently startles the circle 
that has gathered around its cheerful blaze. When exposed 
to damp air this mineral undergoes chemical change, and 
during the process heat is given out, sometimes in sufficient 
quantities to set the coal alight. In this way it occasionally 
happens that seams of coal, when they lie near the surface, 
take fire of their own accord. One day a savage on a stroll 
was startled by finding the ground warm beneath his feet, 
and by seeing smoke and sulphurous vapors issuing from 
it. He laid it first to a supernatural cause ; but curiosity get- 
ting the better of superstition, he scraped away the earth to 
find whence the reek came. Then he saw a bed of black 
stone, loose blocks of which he had already noticed lying 



HEAT — COAL. 45 

about ; parts of this stone were smouldering, and as soon as 
air was admitted burst into a blaze." 

Whether coal was thus discovered or not, its first discovery 
must have occurred early in the history of the world. More 
than twenty centuries ago the Greek scholar, Theophrastus, 
wrote of the coals which were used by blacksmiths. There 
are indications that coal was mined in England before that 
country was conquered by the Romans. But not until the 
twelfth century was enough of the mineral mined in New- 
castle, the great coal region of England, to warrant its being 
carried to London. As this coal was brought in vessels to the 
metropolis it received the name of "sea-coal," and it was thus 
called for several centuries. 

How strange it is that opposition always arises to every 
new thing! People are always to be found who think that 
anything with which they are not familiar cannot be good. 
So it was in London. A cry began to arise that the use of 
coal was injurious to health. The coal was soft or bitumi- 
nous, and burned with considerable flame and a dense smoke. 
This was before the common use of chimneys, and therefore 
the air in the rooms where it was burned became filled with 
an unpleasant odor. The belief was general that the use of 
coal rendered the air unfit to breathe, and Parliament was 
requested to put a stop to it. King Edward L issued a proc- 
lamation forbidding any but blacksmiths to burn sea-coals, 
and directing that buildings from which coal-smoke was seen 
to come should be torn down. Though the law was repealed 
under a later king, coal was but little used for household pur- 
poses until the eighteenth century. 

Most of the coal beds in the United States are situated at 
some distance from the ocean ; therefore the first colonists, 
settling along the coast, were for a long time ignorant of 



46 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

their existence. The first white man to discover coal was 
Father Hennepin, who more than two hundred years ago, 
while exploring the Mississippi River, found it in Illinois. 
The first mines worked were the Richmond fields in Vir- 
ginia, w^here coal was taken out a century and a half ago. 

There is a tradition that a boy left home one morning to 
go fishing. After trying his luck for a time he found that 
his bait was gone. Accordingly he began to hunt for craw- 
fish, and while searching stumbled over some black stones 
which attracted his attention. He had found the "outcrop'* 
of a coal bed, and on his return he made known his dis- 
covery. A rich vein of coal was soon disclosed, and mining 
on a small scale was begun. We must remember that this 
story is only tradition and may not be true. We might won- 
der, perhaps, how the boy knew that the stones were any 
different from other rocks except in being black. 

The way in which a twelve-foot vein was discovered in 
Pennsylvania is told in Forest and Stream, and is probably 
quite true. 

Elias Blank, living in Western Pennsylvania in the latter 
part of the last century, was called to his door one night and 
found there Lewis Whetzell, a famous Indian fighter, and 
Jonathan Gates, commonly called ''Long Arms." 

"Friend Lewis," said Mr. Blank, "where have thee and 
our friend been, and where bound? " 

"I want to get out of here at once," said Whetzell, "and 
Long Arms is of the same opinion. This country's bewitched, 
and Long Arms and I are nearly scared to death." 

"Friend Lewis, thee must not tell such stories to me," 
said old Elias. "Thee knows I am thy friend, and I have 
saved thee when a price was on thy head. I know thou art 
a man of courage, and friend Jonathan Gates, whom some 



HEAT — COAL. 47 

call 'Long Arms,' fears nothing on earth, and I'm fearful 
nothing anywhere else ; and yet thou tellest me that he and 
thee are scared even almost to death. Shame on thee so to 
declare before thy friend, who loves ye both as he were thy 
father!" 

" No, no, Elias," said Whetzell, dropping into the Quaker 
speech. " I tell thee no lie. We are scared. Yesterday 
afternoon we were in hiding about a mile from Dunkard 
Creek, and in the evening we built a fire under the bank very 
carefully ; and we got some black rocks to prop up a little 
kettle, and put them beside the fire rather than in it; and the 
black rocks took fire and burned fiercely, with a filthy smoke 
and a bright light; and Long Arms said the devil would 
come if we stayed ; and we grabbed the kettle and poured out 
the water, and made our way here, leaving the black rocks to 
burn." 

Elias Blank was much interested. He did not tell Whet- 
zell what the black rocks were, but he found out exactly where 
the men had made their fire, and the next day hunted up the 
camping-ground, found the " black rocks " in one of the river- 
hills, and opened a coal bank. 

Thus, a little here and a little there, coal was discovered 
and used. At first it was mingled with wood, and then 
burned alone on the hearth. This coal was easily kindled, 
for it was bituminous or soft ; it was not necessary to provide 
an extra draft, or to spend much more time in lighting it 
than had been custgmary with wood. Not many years 
passed, however, before a variety of coal was found that was 
hard and would not kindle easily. Accordingly it was 
thrown aside as useless. This was anthracite coal, and it is 
now generally preferred to the bituminous because of this 
very quality. Being hard, it does not burn away so rapidly; 



48 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

besides, it needs less attention and gives out much less 
smoke. 

Just before the Revolution, Obadiah Gore, a blacksmith in 
the Wyoming valley in Pennsylvania, tried hard coal in his 
forge. At first, even with his great bellows, he was unable 
to make it burn. He continued the experiment, however, 
and after a time the lumps began to yield and flames darted 
from them. He thus discovered that pieces of anthracite coal 
could be kindled and burned if there was a " strong current 
of air," as he said, *'sent through them by the bellows; 
without that I could do nothing with them." 

Mr. Gore thus used anthracite coal in his forge, but even 
he did not burn it at home. Not until the beginning of this 
century was hard coal used for domestic purposes. Oliver 
Evans in 1803 successfully burned it in a grate. Many 
years passed, however, before hard coal came into common 
use. A few people purchased anthracite coal, but they could 
not burn it; they used it just as they had been accustomed 
to use soft coal. After that, great difficulty was experienced 
in persuading any one to try the new coal. 

Nicholas Allen in Pennsylvania discovered anthracite coal 
and got out several wagonloads of it. He tried in vain to 
sell it. "No," said the people, "we have tried that once, 
and we do not propose to be cheated again." Mr. Allen be- 
came discouraged and sold his interest to his partner, Colonel 
Shoemaker, who took the coal to Philadelphia. Here he 
praised it so highly that at last a few .people bought a little 
for trial. They continually punched the coal and stirred up 
the fire, but they did not succeed in making it burn. They 
became enraged with Colonel Shoemaker, and procured a 
warrant for his arrest as a common impostor. The colonel 
heard of the warrant, quietly left the city, and drove thirty 



HEAT — COAL. 



49 



miles out of his route in order to avoid the officer. Fortu- 
nately a firm of iron factors who had purchased some of the 
coal succeeded in making it burn. They announced the 
fact in the Philadelphia 
newspapers, and other 
iron - workers tried the 
coal. Soon all the fur- 
naces were using it. 

Both anthracite and 
bituminous coal are 
freely mined in vari- 
ous sections of the 
United States. 
There is coal enough 
underground to last 
for many centuries. 
It used to be said 
that England was the 
great coal-mining coun- 
try, for her coal fields 
are nearly as extensive as 
those of all the rest of Eur- 
ope. But the United States has 
a supply of coal that will apparently 
be hardly diminished when that of the 
British Islands is entirely used. The 

single State of Pennsylvania has a greater store of coal than 
all Europe, and her part is less than one-tenth of the stock 
of coal in the United States. 

Even if the forests of the entire country should be de- 
stroyed, w^e should not want for fuel. But let us remember 
that not only would the loss of our forests deprive us of wood 




# 



BLACKSMITH AT HIS FOKGE, 



50 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

for other purposes than merely to keep us warm, but it would 
also cause great injury to the farming interests of the coun- 
try. If we would have good crops we must have proper 
rainfalls; without forests the rain would do greater and 
greater injury and less and less good. We ought to do all 
in our power to help preserve our forests, and as far as we 
can to increase the number of trees. 



CHAPTER VII. 
MATCHES. 

" Thomas ! Thomas ! The fire is out ! Get right up and 
go over to neighbor Wallace's and borrow some fire." It 
was a cold morning, eight degrees below zero, and Mr. Wal- 
lace lived three-quarters of a mile away. The sun would 
not rise for two hours; but, when mother called, the boys in- 
stantly obeyed. Thomas hurriedly dressed, snatched a shovel 
which was standing by the hearth, and hastily shutting the 
outside door, ran as fast as he could to the nearest neighbor's. 
Of course he hurried, for was not mother all dressed and not 
a bit of fire in the house? The fire must have died down too 
much the evening before ; and although the coals had been 
carefully covered with ashes before father and mother went 
to bed, mother could not find a tiny spark anywhere under 
the ashes in the morning. 

Thomas kept up his run until he was tired, and then fell 
into a brisk walk. When he reached neighbor Wallace's, he 
was glad to warm his numbed fingers over the raging fire in 
the fireplace. But he knew that he must not stop long, so he 
stated his errand, and Mrs. Wallace placed some live coals 
on his shovel and thoroughly covered them with ashes. 
Thomas rested a moment longer and then hastened home ; 
for if those coals should be out when he reached the house 
he would have to make the trip over again. 

This disaster did not befall him, however, and soon his 
mother had placed the coals on the hearth and had laid upon 



52 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 




THOMAS CARRYING FIRE. 



them a few shavings. These kindled at once ; small sticks 
were soon ablaze, and in a very short time the fire was burn- 
ing as vigorously as the neighbor's had been. 

The boys of two centuries ago fully realized what it meant 
to have the fire go out. Perhaps the nearest neighbors were 

not always so far distant, 
but it was no pleasant task 
to be sent for coals any 
distance on a winter morn- 
i n g . If, however, no 
neighbors were near and 
coals could not be bor- 
rowed, how under circum- 
stances like these could a 
new fire be kindled? If 
we wanted a fire nowadays 
we might say, " Strike a 
light," because we should obtain the light by striking a match ; 
but, before matches were invented, the expression used would 
probably have been, " Rub a light." 

An early method of producing a light, and from this a 
fire, was by rubbing two sticks together. If this process be 
continued long enough the wood will become heated and 
sparks will fly off. Then, in order to start the fire, it is only 
necessary to catch one of these sparks upon something that 
will burn easily. This method was used thousands of years 
ago, and is still common among the savages in various parts 
of the globe. This seems simple enough, but if you try it 
you will find that it is no easy task. It requires considerable 
muscular power to " rub a light " from two sticks of wood, 
and almost any other process is preferable. 

The most important thing in this method of kindling a 



HEAT — MATCHES. 



53 



fire is the rapidity with which the sticks are rubbed together. 
Some one of the savages more keen than the others con- 
ceived the idea that he could save labor and at the same 
time increase the rapidity with which the stick moved. He 
took his bow and twisted the cord once around a stick. Then 
he placed one end on a piece of wood, and by moving the bow 
back and forth twisted the stick with great rapidity. Soon 
the shavings which he had placed at the point of contact 
were ablaze. Little by little this drill was improved, and 
now among some of the American Indians it furnishes a 
comparatively easy way of kindling a fire. 

Most children have seen a spark caused by the shoe of a 
horse striking a stone in the road. Sometimes if one stone 
strikes another a spark is produced. All this was perceived 
even in the earliest times, and the best substances to be used 
became well known. The 
stone called flint was found 
to be the best for one of the 
two substances, and steel is 
usually preferred for the 
other. When steel and flint 
strike each other, if a spark 
falls upon some vegetable 
matter a fire is soon kindled. 

Perhaps the most common 
substance used to catch the 
spark was touchwood, a soft, 
decayed wood carefully 

broken into small fragments. After a time, in place of the 
touchwood, tinder was used, which was made by scorching 
old linen handkerchiefs. Later the tinder box was invented, 
in which a steel wheel was spun like a top upon a piece of 




TINDER BOX, FLINT, AND MATCHES, 



54 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

flint set in tinder. After the discovery of gunpowder, flint 
and steel were used in guns. A hammer of flint struck an 
anvil of steel, and the spark produced fell into a pan of gun- 
powder, causing the flash which fired the gun. 

Before the American Revolution, and even into the pres- 
ent century, the process of kindling a fire w^as not a simple 
one. The most frequent means employed, as has been seen, 
was the borrowing of coals from a neighbor. Less often, re- 
course w^as had to the long and difficult process of rubbing a 
spark from two pieces of wood. Sometimes, among the well- 
to-do, the tinder box was used ; but it was seldom satisfactory. 
For these reasons the fire was always most carefully watched ; 
every precaution was taken to prevent it from going 
out. Seldom could the house be left by the whole family 
for any length of time, and all because of the lack of a 
match. 

Matches are a result of the study of chemistry. During 
the Dark Ages a few scholars were interested in what they 
called alchemy; but they spent most of their time and 
thought in trying to discover two things — how to change 
iron into gold, and how to keep themselves eternally young. 
About two hundred years ago these two foolish desires came 
to be considered unpractical, and since then chemists have 
been constantly seeking to discover ways of benefiting man- 
kind. For many years students in different countries tried 
to find certain chemicals that could be so combined as to 
render the tinder box unnecessary. Several of these at- 
tempts to make a light seemed successful, but most of them 
were dangerous and all were expensive. An account of one 
of these trials may be of interest. 

About seventy years ago a young man named Lauria, in 
Lyons, France, watched his professor pound some sulphur 



HEAT — MATCHES. 55 

and chlorate of potash together. The resulting flash and 
sharp crack set him thinking, and he went home and began 
to experiment. He had a few sticks of pine wood wtuch 
had been partly dipped in sulphur, and a few glass tubes, and 
he obtained more sulphur and some chlorate. He tried melt- 
ing and mixing, only to meet with many accidents. Finally 
he dipped the end of one of the sticks into sulphur and then 
into the chlorate. He observed that some of the chlorate re- 
mained on the stick. Then he rubbed this prepared end on 
the wall where there happened to be a little phosphorus; 
the stick immediately blazed. He had discovered for him- 
self the principle of the match ; all he needed besides was 
something which would make the chlorate always stick to the 
sulphured wood. 

However, this match was not satisfactory and was never 
manufactured for sale. Phosphorus was dangerous, and it 
was not safe to have it spread upon a wall or any other sur- 
face. The first matches of practical use were made in 1833, 
and were invented by six different men in six different 
countries. These were the original Lucifer matches, which 
did not require the use of phosphorus. They were made of 
thin sticks of wood partly covered with sulphur. The ends 
of these sticks were then dipped into a compound of chlorate 
of potash, sulphite of antimony, and gum. When used these 
matches were drawn through a bent piece of sandpaper. 
They were costly, frequently selling for a cent apiece. 

A few years later a famous chemist discovered the red 
form of phosphorus, which is not dangerous to handle. 
Since that time most matches have contained this substance 
in the mixture, although during the last half century hun- 
dreds of different combinations have been invented. To-day 
hardly any article is manufactured that is so common and 



56 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

inexpensive as the match. Without it we should feel almost 
lost, and surely it would seem to us that the Dark Ages- had 
returned. We are told that the inhabitants of the United 
States use on an average more than a thousand matches a 
year each. There are more than forty manufactories in this 
country, most of them being in California, Connecticut, New 
York, and Pennsylvania, yet the entire business is principally 
controlled by one great company. 

During the last two hundred years chimneys have been 
improved, stoves have been invented and developed, coal has 
been discovered, and matches have come into universal use. 
The log cabins of our ancestors have been replaced by the 
well-built houses of to-day. The mammoth fireplaces, send- 
ing much heat up the chimney and much smoke into the room, 
have given way to the stoves and furnaces that render life 
comfortable. No longer is it necessary to freeze our backs 
while roasting our faces. Cranes, pot-hooks and trammels, 
and Dutch ovens are chiefly to be seen in museums, and the 
kitchen range saves the cook much needless labor. Nowa- 
days we seldom find the fires out on a winter's morning and 
the water frozen in the pitcher. Instead of hastening through 
the cold and the snow to a neighbor to borrow fire, we simply 
"strike a match." We all of us live in comfort that would 
have seemed luxury to the wealthiest families two centuries 
ago. 

Can we look forward to the changes that may come in the 
future in the methods of heating our houses and cooking our 
food? Already railroad cars are being heated by steam from 
the engines and electric cars are heated by electricity. Al- 
ready oil stoves and gas stoves have come into common use 
and are found to possess many advantages : No ashes need 
removal ; the fire may be started without delay ; the room is 



HEAT — MATCHES. 57 

less heated than with a coal fire ; and the blaze may be turned 
out when no longer needed. Already in some parts of the 
country natural gas is led by pipes directly from the wells 
into houses for cooking and for heating purposes. Already 
experiments in heating houses and cooking food by means 
of electricity are common and to some extent successful. It 
would seem that the inventions and improvements of the 
next hundred years may render the homes as much more 
comfortable than those of to-day as ours surpass those of 
our ancestors. 




THOMAS A. EDISON. 



SECTION II.-LIGHT. 



6o 



AMERICAN IxWENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



KXk'X4-^-S 




'riM-^j^^-iiAxr-'-.K ^"^i** ^»,^?>-~ j«i»s,'5ag 



..z.*^^fm'^- 





MINOT'S ledge light, MAbSACHUSElTS llAV, 



SECTION II.— LIGHT. 



CHAPTER I. 
TORCHES. 

Wood and coal, gas and oil, electricity even, aid us in 
our demand for warm houses. In winter we should suffer 
greatly were it not for our fireplaces, our stoves, and our 
furnaces. The sun then shines but a short time every day, 
and sends us little heat. In summer "the great orb of day " 
remains many hours in the heavens, and warms us through 
and through. We have little desire then for artificial heat ; 
natural heat is sometimes more than sufficient. 

The sun shines over all the world. *' His going forth is 
from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of 
it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." 

The sun does much more for us than send us its heat- 
rays : all day long we rejoice in the bright sunshine. But 
at night, when the sun has set, we ask for artificial light. 
How shall we get it ? How did our ancestors obtain it ? 

We have in our day the electric light ; we can use illuani- 
nating gas; kerosene is easily obtained ; if necessary, we can 
resort to candles. Yet there was a time when the electric 
light had not been discovered. Earlier still, gas had not 
been made and kerosene was not known. Indeed, long, 
long ago even candles had not been seen by men. What 
did the people do for light on a dark night in those times ? 
After the sun had set and night had settled down upon them, 



62 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



what could they do during the long winter evenings without 
some method of lighting up the darkness? 

As we looked to the American Indians for the simplest 
and rudest methods of obtaining heat, so we can also learn 
something from them of the primitive modes of lighting. 
Much of the time the red men found sufficient light for all 
their wants in the wood fire. They needed no candles to 

read by, for they had 
no books nor papers. 
They cared for no 
lamp to dress by; 
they sought no illu- 
mination for halls or 
churches or theatres. 
What little need they 
had for artificial light 
was practically satis- 
fied by that which 
came from the blaz- 
ing logs. 

If, however, on 
any special occasion 
they wished to light up their long houses more brightly, the 
Indians used pitch-pine knots. In case they were traveling 
by night and did not care to proceed stealthily or secretly, 
these fagots of pitch pine gave them all the light they 
wanted. The light from these sticks was dim ; it flickered so 
as to hurt the eyes ; more smoke was given out than light ; 
but the savage was fully content. 

Long before the red men were known, however, the burn- 
ing fagot was used by the people of Europe and Asia to les- 
sen the darkness of the night. 




INDIANS TRAVEUNG AT NIGHT. 



LIGHT — TORCHES. 63 

An interesting story is told of Hannibal when lie was 
leading the Carthaginian army against Rome. In the course 
of his journey he marched his whole force into a valley which 
was entirely surrounded by high mountains very difficult to 
cross. Fabius, his Roman opponent, placed his own army in 
the pass and enclosed Hannibal in the valley. Hannibal was 
apparently caught in a trap, but he was a shrewd commander, 
and he quickly devised a trick to make Fabius withdraw his 
legions. Early in the day he sent out a large detail from his 
army to gather fagots. What was he about to do with such 
great quantities of pine knots? 

In the afternoon, by Hannibal's orders, these fagots were 
bound to the horns of oxen which had been driven along 
during the march for food for the army. At nightfall the 
fagots were lighted and the oxen were driven directly up the 
steep side of one of the mountains. Fabius naturally sup- 
posed that the lights moving up the mountain-side must be 
carried by soldiers, and he thought that Hannibal and all his 
army were trying to escape in that direction. Accordingly 
he quickly withdrew his troops from the pass in order to at- 
tack the enemy when they came down the opposite side of 
the mountain. Hannibal then quietly marched his army 
through the pass, meeting with no opposition. 

Long, long centuries before Hannibal the torch was 
known. In that strange story of Gideon and his three hun- 
dred men who overcame the Midianites, the torch or lamp 
was one of the weapons used. The vast host of the Midian- 
ites, fearing no hostile attack, was spread over a great val- 
ley. Gideon placed his little band of men on the hills 
around the enemy's camp, each man at a considerable dis- 
tance from the next, so that they made a line nearly sur- 
rounding the entire valley. Every man had a trumpet in 



64 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

one hand, and a lamp or torch covered by an upturned 
pitcher in the other. This arrangement of the lamp and 
the pitcher allowed a little light to be thrown upon the 
ground directly beneath. The men could thus avoid step- 
ping upon dry sticks and making a noise which might alarm 
the guards around the camp of the Midianites. At the same 
time the light was concealed from the eyes of their enemies. 

When all was ready a shout was raised, " The sword of 
the Lord and of Gideon ! " and the pitchers were thrown with 
a great crash upon the ground. The sudden noise of voices 
and of the breaking pitchers awoke the Midianites from a 
deep sleep ; the trumpets and the shouts turned their eyes to 
the hills. All along the line of the three hundred men 
spread out in a circle around them blazed the three hundred 
torches. As it was the custom in those days to have a torch 
or a lamp indicate the headquarters of a general, the Midian- 
ites in their sudden terror naturally thought that an immense 
army was surrounding them. They imagined that Gideon 
had hired vast forces from Egypt and elsewhere, for they 
supposed that each of the several hundred torches indicated 
a general with all his followers. Their only thought, there- 
fore, was to flee as quickly as possible. They ran against 
each other, and, unable in the darkness to distinguish friend 
from foe, they killed their own men. The entire army of 
one hundred and thirty-five thousand men perished. 

It is not certain whether the lights which were covered 
by the pitchers came from lamps or torches. Gideon lived 
three thousand years ago, and at that time both torches and 
lamps were used. He was a general of the Israelites, and 
they certainly had lamps when in Egypt many years before 
the time of Gideon. Lamps were also used by the Greeks 
and the Romans. 



LIGHT — TORCHES. 



65 




The lamp of these ancient times was merely a small ves- 
sel like a modern cup or bowl, usually having a handle. 
This was filled with oil, generally olive, or sometimes only 
with grease. In this cup was placed a small piece of cloth 
hanging over the side, which when lighted served as a wick. 
It was the simplest arrangement possible. 

The pitch-pine knot and the cup of grease have been more 
or less used since these early times. When our ancestors 
came to this country their 
houses were generally 
lighted by candles. In 
many cases, however, the 
light from the fireplace 
was all that was used ex- 
cept on rare occasions. 
The settlers who gradually 
moved westward to take up 
new lands retained nearly 

all the inconvenient methods of the earlier colonists. In the 
newer settlements of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and 
on the great Western plains the logs on the hearth were 
frequently the only means for lighting the house during the 
evenings. 

On Knob Creek, in the new State of Kentucky, a little 
school was kept nearly eighty-five years ago. Among the 
pupils was a small boy not seven years of age. One of his 
schoolmates afterward said of him that he was " an unusually 
bright boy at school, and made splendid progress in his studies. 
He would get spice-wood brushes, hack them up on a log, and 
burn two or three together for the purpose of giving light by 
which he might pursue his studies." It does not surprise us 
to learn that this boy who thus in his earliest years showed 
5 



ANCIENT LAMPS. 



66 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

such eagerness to learn as to utilize the light of the kitchen 
fire was Abraham Lincoln, afterward the famous President 
of the United States. 

Many men are now living who do not remember to have 
seen in their boyhood days any better light than the grease 
lamp. One of these primitive lamps was easily made. An 
old button was covered with cloth, which was tied with a 
string close to the button, the edges of the cloth hanging 
free. This covered button was placed upon lard in a saucer 
or other similar vessel, and a light applied. The lard around 
the cloth melted, the button acted as a wick, and a rude lamp 
was the result. 

The hearth fire, the fagot or pitch-pine knot, and the pot 
of grease or lard with a simple wick were the earliest 
methods of artificial lighting. These, though still in use in 
newly settled communities, gave place, in the main, centuries 
ago to the candle. As this was the first improved method 
for lighting houses, churches, and other buildings, it should 
next be considered. 



CHAPTER II. 
CANDLES. 

Nobody can tell when candles were invented. Candle- 
sticks are often spoken of in the Bible, but those doubtless 
held oil and burned a wick which hung over the side like the 
Roman lamps of later time. These lamps appear to have 
been used by the Romans in their worship, and after the 
Christian religion was established at Rome, candles were in- 
troduced into the Christian service. During all the centuries 
since that time the candle has been used in Catholic churches 
and cathedrals. 

The Romans on the second day of February burned candles 
to the goddess Februa, the mother of Mars, the Roman god 
of war, and Pope Sergius adopted the custom and established 
rites and ceremonies for that day in the offering of candles 
to the Virgin Mary. This was called Candlemas day. The 
common people supposed that these candles would frighten 
away ^le devil and all evil spirits not only from the persons 
who burned them, but from the houses in which they were 
placed. There is an ancient tradition about Candlemas day 
which seems to have traveled all over Europe and found its 
way into this country ; if the weather is fine on that day — 
February 2d — it indicates a long winter and a late spring. 
The Scotch state the legend in this way : 

" If Candlemas day is fair and clear, 
There'll be two winters in the year." 



68 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

For several centuries past candles have been used all over 
the world for lighting purposes. We have a variety of can- 
dles even in these days, as they are now made of tallow, 
stearin, bleached wax, spermaceti, and paraffine. Those 
commonly used by the early colonists were dipped candles, 
often roughly made at home. For the wicks a loose, soft, 
fibrous substance was taken, generally cotton. These were 
hung upon a frame and dipped in melted tallow, taken out, 
suffered to cool, and dipped again and again until the re- 
quired thickness was obtained. Moulded candles were cast 
in a series of tubes, the wicks first being adjusted in the 
middle of the tubes and melted tallow poured in. The best 
candles were made of wax. These were neither dipped nor 
moulded. The wicks were warmed, and melted wax poured 
over them until they acquired the proper thickness, then 
they were rolled between flat pieces of wet, hard wood. 

It is related of Benjamxin Franklin that when a young 
man he received an invitation from Gov. William Burnet, of 
New York, to call upon him. The governor was delighted 
with his conversation, and was surprised to hear him quote 
from Locke on the Understanding. The governor asked 
him at what college he had studied Locke. 

"Why, sir," said Franklin, "it was my misfortune never 
to be at any college, or even at a grammar school, 'except 
for a year or two when I was a child." 

Here the governor sprang from his seat, and staring at 
Ben, cried out: "Well, and where did you get your educa- 
tion, pray? " 

"At home, sir, in a tallow-chandler's shop." 

" In a tallow-chandler's shop! " exclaimed the governor. 

"Yes, sir; my father was a poor old tallow chandler with 
fifteen children, and I the youngest of all. [His father had, 



LIGHT — CANDLES. 



69 



later, two other children, both girls.] At eight he put me 
to school; but finding he could not spare the money from the 
rest of the children to keep me there, he took me home into 
the shop, where I assisted him by twisting candlewicks and 




FRANKLIN MAKING CANDLES. 



filling the moulds all day, and at night read by myself." So 
Benjamin Franklin spent two years of his life, between the 
ages of ten and twelve, in making candles for the good 
people of Boston. 

The candles gave but a poor light compared with the 
lights which we have to-day. The combustion was only par- 
tial, and there was constant trouble from the necessity of 
"snuffing the candle," that is, cutting off the burnt wick. 
In those days, in every well-regulated house, on the little 



70 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



centre-table stood the candlestick, and by its side upon a 
small tray made for the purpose could always be found the 
"snuffers " — a singular instrument, something like a pair of 

scissors, with a small semi- 
circular pocket in which to 
hold the snuff taken from 
the candle. 

Let us imagine an early 
New England family on a 
winter's evening sitting be- 
fore the blazing fire of the 
open fireplace. They are 
gathered around a small 
table upon which is a soli- 
tary candle, giving a feeble, 
sickly flame. By its light 
the mother is sewing and 
the father is reading from 
the Bible, The Pilgrim's 
Progress, or it may be 
Bacon's Essays, or Locke 
on the Understanding. 
The children are listening 
and trying to get interested 
in what is being read to 
them, while occasionally one or another of them snuffs 
the little candle. By and by the candle burns down "to 
the socket," and goes out. The mother rises and goes to the 
pantry to get another, but finds to her dismay that she has 
used her last one. The family must therefore see by the 
light of the fire or retire for the night, and to-morrow the 
goodwife must dip some more candles. 




READING BY CANDLELIGHT 



LIGHT — CANDLES. 7 1 

When the children go to bed they have no brightly burn- 
ing lamp to light them to their several bedrooms, but they 
climb the ladder to the open, unfinished loft with no light 
except what comes to them from the embers upon the hearth. 
Then the father covers up the coals with a great body of ashes, 
hoping to " keep the fire " till morning. What a marked con- 
trast between the life of those people and the customs of 
to-day in the same country and among the grandchildren 
and the great-grandchildren of those same pioneer settlers ! 

In the colonial days for an evening service the churches 
must be lighted with candles. Occasionally you will find 
even now in some ancient church the antique candelabra or 
chandelier. Sometimes in wealthy churches these were 
made of glass, and were of beautiful construction. In the old 
meeting-house of the first Baptist church in Providence, Rhode 
Island, which was founded by Roger Williams and others in 
1639, there is one of these ancient glass candelabras. It is 
of immense proportions, hanging from the ceiling by a long, 
stout chain, and arranged for a large number of candles. It 
has not been used for many years, but it is a beautiful orna- 
ment and a suggestive reminder of the method by which our 
ancestors lighted their churches in the early times. 

In these days of brilliant electric lights, how small appears 
the light of the ancient candles ! Have we gained in knowl- 
edge and manner of living as greatly as in heating and light- 
ing our houses ? 



CHAPTER III. 
WHALE OIL. 

No one knows when the whale fishery began. Eight 
hundred years ago whales were caught off the coast of France 
and Spain, and before the Pilgrim fathers landed at Plymouth 
the whale fishery had been carried on to such an extent on the 
west coast of Europe that the supply of whales had begun to 
fail. The American whale fishery began with the earliest 
settlers. They found it profitable to catch whales and try 
out the oil for use in their lamps. It has been said that one 
of the arguments for settling on Cape Cod was the presence 
along the coast of large whales of the best kind for oil and 
whalebone. 

The first whale fishery in America was carried on from 
Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard by large row- 
boats. A company of hardy pioneers would row out from 
the coast into deep water, wait for the appearance of a 
whale, strike their harpoons into his side, and let him run. 
Sometimes it would be days before death would result. 
Often he would sink and later rise and float upon the surface. 
The fishermen would then pull him to the shore and try out 
the oil. Many whales thus harpooned would be lost to those 
who had wounded them. A story is told that in the town of 
Southampton, Long Island, before the year 1650, the men 
divided themselves into squads to watch night and day for 
whales that might come ashore, and this became in a few 
years a regular industry. 



LIGHT — WHALE OIL. 



73 



After a time whaling vessels were fitted up and sent out 
for the capture of whales. These vessels cruised in all waters. 
They coasted along Greenland and into the Arctic Ocean. 
They traversed the South Seas, and sailed upon the Pacific 
through all latitudes from Patagonia to Bering Sea. Great 
vessels — barks, brigs, and full-rigged ships — manned with 
large crews of stalwart men, with supplies for a three-years' 
voyage or more, would leave home for a cruise in foreign 
waters after these 
monsters of the deep. 

When the whale is 
killed its body is towed 
alongside the vessel 
and is made fast by 
the ship's chains. 
The huge animal is 
then cut up into slices, 
and these slices taken 
in between decks. 
This cutting up — or, 
as the sailors call it, 

"cutting in " — occupies the entire ship's company for hours. 
The fat or " blubber," as they call it, is cut into smaller cubical 
pieces, heated in a large pot, and the oil strained off. This 
is called "trying out." The oil is stored in casks to be con- 
veyed home. A large whale will give two or three tons of 
blubber. It is estimated that a ton of blubber will yield 
nearly two hundred gallons of oil. Sometimes a single 
whale will produce oil and whalebone to the value of $3,000 
or s34,ooo. 

It will readily be seen that whale fishing is both a labor- 
ious and a dangerous occupation. The wounded whale is 




WHALE FISHING. 



74 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

accustomed to strike violently with its tail in the endeavor 
to destroy its enemies. Here is a true story about the ex- 
periences of one family engaged in the whale fishery. Long 
before the year 1800 and after that date for almost half a 
century, New Bedford, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and 
Provincetown in Massachusetts, with Warren and Bristol in 
Rhode Island, engaged very largely in this hazardous but 
profitable business. In one of these towns an industrious and 
enterprising man of more than ordinary ability followed this 
occupation for half a century and amassed a small fortune. 
He had several sons. When the oldest grew to manhood he 
very naturally followed in the footsteps of his father. He 
went to sea on a whaling vessel and was lost during his first 
voyage. 

The second son shipped on a whaler. In the Arctic 
waters he was one day pursuing a whale that had already 
been wounded, rowing with all his might. The whale in 
his anger struck at the boat with his huge tail, hit the oar 
with which the young man was rowing, and drove the end 
of it into his mouth, breaking the bones and crushing in the 
very interior. Still the young man lived. He was tenderly 
cared for by his shipmates, and finally reached home. Then 
he was turned over to the doctors. Skilful surgery supplied 
him with a false lower jaw, a gold roof to his mouth, and a 
false palate. He lived many years and was a successful busi- 
ness man. Had you met him on the street he would have 
talked with you like any other man, and you would have 
observed nothing unusual except the scars of two cuts on the 
upper lip. 

The third son when eighteen years of age also left home 
on a whaling voyage. At the end of three years his ship 
returned with a full cargo of excellent oil. The heavily 



LIGHT — WHALE OIL. 75 

freighted .vessel anchored in the bay, and the captain went 
up to the town in a rowboat to announce his arrival, and to 
tell the people of the success of the voyage and that all were 
well on board. Just as the captain was leaving for the shore 
some young men in the crew, wishing to celebrate their safe 
return, proposed firing the ship's swivel-gun. As the cap- 
tain started over the side of the vessel he cautioned them, 
saying that the gun was rusty and that it would not be safe 
to fire it. But it was our young friend's birthday. He would 
risk the old gun. They ran it out on deck, loaded it up, and 
touched it off. There was a terrific explosion. The gun 
burst and blew off both hands of the young man who was 
celebrating his birthday. Another boat was pushed off for 
the shore and carried the wounded man to his home. Nothing 
could save his hands ; they were both amputated at the wrists. 
Through a long life he wore wooden hands covered with kid 
gloves. He was accustomed frequently to mourn that he had 
not at least one thumb. If he could have had a single thumb 
he could have done many things. Was it not Emerson who 
said that the thumb is the symbol of civilization? Man 
could never have attained his present position without a thumb. 
For many years this man, thus maimed for life, kept a 
store and sold groceries and ship supplies. A visitor one day 
saw him weigh out for a lady customer a quarter of a pound 
of pepper. It was at the noon hour, when the clerks were 
all away at dinner. The customer came and asked for a 
quarter of a pound of pepper. The storekeeper pulled out 
the drawer, placed it on the counter, put a piece of paper 
in the hopper, adjusted the scale to the quarter pound, slipped 
one of his wooden fingers through the handle of the little 
tin scoop, and scattered the pepper upon the paper until the 
full weight was made. He then returned the drawer to its 



'J^ AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

place, took off the hopper and laid it upon the counter, pulled 
out the paper and the pepper, doubled the paper over on one 
side and back from the other side, doubled over one end and 
then the other, picked it up between his two wooden hands, 
and handed it to the customer. She placed the money on the 
back of his hand. With the other hand he pulled open the 
money drawer and tossed the money in. With both hands 
he took off his hat, picked up the change with his lips, placed 
the change upon the back of his hand, and passed it to the 
lady. Three unfortunate experiences in one family would 
seem to have been enough, so the next son never went to sea. 

We may now ask what was the object of all this whale 
fishery? Man had made a new invention. He had not only 
discovered the value of whale oil as a material for furnishing 
artificial light, he had also invented the modern lamp. In 
the candle the burning material, whether tallow or something 
else, is solidified around the wick. The heat from the burn- 
ing wick melts the tallow and the combustion gives light. 

In the modern lamp the simple device of a tube or two 
tubes to hold the wick is all that is needed over and above 
those used in ancient times. Tin tubes are placed in the 
top of the lamp and the wicks run up through the tubes. 
The lamp then being filled with oil, capillary attraction will 
bring the oil up to the top of the wick. The lamp when 
lighted will burn until the supply of oil is exhausted. 

The invention of this modern lamp, though very simple, 
has been of great value. At first it was made of metal — 
lead, block tin, Britannia, brass — and finally of glass. Lamps 
of various patterns and different sizes became common. For 
a long while very little change was made in this new mode 
of obtaining light. This method continued in common use 
until about the middle of the nineteenth century. 



CHAPTER IV. 

^ KEROSENE. 

It was a long step from the smoky and ill-smelling whale- 
oil lamp to the clear and brilliant kerosene burner. At the 
present time the best illumination is furnished by gas and 
electricity, but in the country and to a large extent in the 
cities the kerosene lamp is still in common use, and doubtless 
will remain so for a long time to come. This lamp with its 
recent important improvements is mainly of American origin 
and development. 

Kerosene for lighting purposes has some advantages over 
gas or electricity. The light produced from it is steady; 
therefore it is less harmful to the eyes than the flickering 
light of illuminating gas, and even better than the electric 
light. It is far cheaper than either. It has a third advan- 
tage, since it can be used in a hand lamp which can be car- 
ried from place to place. A large portion of our population 
consider it so valuable that they would rather give up the 
gaslight altogether, or indeed the electric light, than be 
obliged to lose the kerosene lamp. 

Kerosene is a form of petroleum which is obtained from 
the earth by deep wells. It is only within the last fifty years 
that this oil has been pumped in sufficient quantities to make 
it a valuable industry, though petroleum was obtained here 
and there in small quantities far back in the early ages. It 
seems a little singular that the people of Japan and Persia 
should have dug oil wells centuries ago. Herodotus, who 



78 AMERICAN INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS. 

wrote history five hundred years before Christ, tells us of the 
springs of Zante, one of the Ionian Islands in the Mediterra- 
nean Sea, from which oil flowed. It is said that these 
springs are still flowing. 

China seems to have been the first country to draw oil 
from artesian wells. We proud Americans are accustomed 
to think ourselves a little ahead of all other people. When 
an American boy in San Francisco, for instance, meets a Chi- 
nese lad, he is quite apt to look down upon him and to think 
that this little Chinese boy came from a country hardly civil- 
ized and certainly far behind the " universal Yankee nation ; " 
yet we are constantly finding traces of a civilization in China 
much earlier than our own. 

The first successful oil well in this country was made by 
Col. E. L. Drake, near Titusville, Pennsylvania. In 1854 the 
Pennsylvania Rock-Oil Company was organized for the pur- 
pose of procuring petroleum in Oil Creek. Four years later 
this company employed Colonel Drake to drill an artesian 
well. On the 29th of August, 1859, ^^ "struck oil" only 
sixty-nine feet below the surface of the ground. The next 
day this well was found to be nearly full of petroleum. 

Oil is now found in large quantities in various sections of 
Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, and Kentucky, and it has 
recently been discovered in California, Wyoming, Colorado, 
and other portions of our land. The largest part of the oil 
used in commerce is from Pennsylvania. At the present 
time more than fifty million barrels of petroleum are pro- 
duced annually in the United States alone, which is more 
than half of the entire product of the world. A single well 
has been known to yield forty thousand gallons a day, flow- 
ing freely without the slightest use of pumping apparatus. 

The product of these wells after a time greatly diminishes 



LIGHT — KEROSENE. 



79 



and sometimes ceases altogether. In such cases it is custom- 
ary to explode torpedoes at the bottom of the well. This is 
done by placing there several gallons of nitroglycerine with 
a fulminating cap on top. This cap is exploded by dropping 
a piece of iron upon it. The explosion opens the seams and 
crevices around the bottom of the well so as to renew the 
flow of oil. 

It is now about forty years since the first introduction of 
kerosene as an article of commerce. To-day it is in almost 
universal use 
throughout the civil- 
ized world. It gives 
a convenient light at 
a moderate expense, 
and has therefore 
proved a great bless- 
ing to mankind. 
Meantime the whale 
fishery has largely 

diminished; indeed, it would seem to be almost destroyed. 
The reasons for this are not difficult to find. In the first 
place, the number of whales is much less than formerly, so 
that this business is far less profitable than it used to be. In 
the second place, the rapid development of the kerosene in- 
dustry has so cheapened the product that people cannot af- 
ford to light their houses with whale oil, especially as they 
find the kerosene not only cheaper, but more convenient and 
satisfactory. 

Common whale oil previous to 1850 had been furnished 
at an average cost of perhaps fifty cents a gallon, while the 
sperm oil, which is of superior quality, cost as much as one 
dollar a gallon. The people of the whole country east of the 




OIL WELLS. 



80 AMERICAN INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS. 

Rocky Mountains feed their lamps to-day with kerosene at a 
cost of from eight cents to twelve cents a gallon. 

A few persons have made great fortunes from the oil 
wells. On the other hand,^it should not be forgotten that 
the modern processes of purifying kerosene could not have 
been put in operation without the aid of large fortunes. A 
cheap and satisfactory light has been furnished to all the 
people of the United States only by means of the great capi- 
tal employed in its production. 

So you see civilization is progressing, and we are all en- 
joying more blessings and conveniences than our fathers 
had. In the earlier times every one had to labor diligently 
to secure food, clothing, and shelter. As civilization ad- 
vances these require less time and expense, and we have 
greater opportunities to attend to the development of our 
higher natures, the acquisition of knowledge, the pursuit of 
science, and the elevation of the race. 



CHAPTER V. 
ILLUMINATING GAS. 

Thus far our various methods of artificial lighting have 
been very simple. At first men burned the pitch from the 
pine, and it produced a flame; then they burned olive oil 
through a wick, and it gave forth a flame. The tallow in 
the candle was burned through a wick, and it made a light; 
the whale oil in the lamp was burned by means of a wick, 
and a light was the result. In the same way refined petro- 
leum, which we call kerosene, was burned by means of a 
wick, and that gave a strong light. These methods of light- 
ing were all very similar. 

We come now to a real invention. What would a boy of 
the year 1800, could he return to the earth, say to see you 
strike a match, turn a stopcock, and light the gas as you do 
to-day? He has never seen a match. He is just as ignorant 
of a stopcock, and surely it would be difficult for him to un- 
derstand the burning of the gas. Many things would need 
to be explained to this boy of a hundred years ago. He 
must be told all about the production of illuminating gas, 
the storing of that gas under pressure, the transportation of 
it to the place where the light is wanted, and the proper ap- 
paratus for turning it on, setting it on fire, and regulating its 
pressure so as to produce a steady, uniform light. 

Before the year 1700 Dr. John Clayton, an Englishman, 
prepared gas from bituminous coal, collected it, and burned 
it for the amusement of his friends. An English bishop in 



82 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

1767 showed how gas could be produced from coal and how 
it might be conveyed in tubes. These were the first two 
steps toward our present almost universal illumination by 
gas: making gas and conveying it in tubes. 

The real inventor of practical gas-lighting was William 
Murdoch, of Cornwall, England, who sometime before, the 
year 1800 carried pipes through his house and office, and 
lighted the various rooms with gas which he had made from 
coal. Indeed, Murdoch did more than this: he lighted with 
his new gas a small steam carriage in which he rode to and 
from his mines. In 1802 he first publicly exhibited this gas- 
lighting in Ayrshire, Scotland, and showed two immense 
flames from coal gas. Nor did he stop here, for in 1805 he 
succeeded in lighting some cotton mills by the same method. 

In our country various experiments were made, but with- 
out any practical result until 182 1, when illuminating gas was 
successfully manufactured and used in Baltimore. In 1827 
the New York Gaslight Company introduced this new 
method into many houses and sold the gas to the people for 
lighting purposes. 

That was over seventy years ago. What a change has been 
made within these seventy years ! In cities and large towns 
almost every new house is piped for gas. Gas companies 
are formed for supplying this illuminating product to the in- 
habitants. Gas meters have been perfected which measure 
the quantity of gas, so that one pays for no more than he 
uses. Moreover, the towns and cities put up street lights 
which burn this same gas in the night, making it easy, con- 
venient, and safe to traverse the streets at any hour. 

Bituminous or soft coal is used in the manufacture of 
illuminating gas, as anthracite contains less of the needed 
materials. Gases are easily driven off from bituminous coal 



LIGHT — ILLUMINATING GAS. 



83 






A GASOMETER. 



whenever it is heated, if air is kept from it. At the works, 
therefore, the coal is placed in large closed ovens, called 
retorts. These are directly over furnace fires, which are 
kept vigorously 



burning. The gases 
pass out of the coal 
and, rising, enter a 
series of long pipes. 
The coal which is 
left in the retorts 
is called coke. This 
process is called dis- 
tillation. 

Many substances 
pass off with the gas, 
from which it must 
be cleaned. Tar and 
ammonia become liq- 
uids when cooled, 

and are left behind as the gas passes through cold water. 
The series of iron pipes in which this process is carried on 
is called the condenser. Then the gas is carried through the 
purifier, in which all other impurities are removed. 

When thoroughly purified the gas passes into the gas- 
ometer. This usually consists of two round iron cylinders of 
nearly the same size, one inside of the other. The outside 
cylinder has no roof; the inside has no floor. The sides of 
the inner one go down into a trench filled with water. Its 
top is held up by the gas, which comes into it from the 
purifier. 

The roof of the inner cylinder presses down heavily upon 
the gas, pushing it into the large main pipes, which run from 




84 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

the gasometer through the principal streets. Smaller mains 
connect with these and the gas is pushed into the service pipes, 
which enter the houses. When a stopcock is opened in any 
house the pressure of the gasometer pushes the gas through, 
it may be, miles of pipes, and out through the burner, where 
it may be lighted. 

Many houses have a simple electric-lighting attachment, 
so that by merely turning a stopcock the gas is turned on, 
and by pulling a chain an electric spark sets the gas on fire, 
flooding the room with light. 

Within a few years illuminating gas has greatly diminished 
in price. It costs a little more than kerosene, but it is more 
convenient in many ways. The danger of carrying lamps 
from room to room is avoided, as well as the disagreeable 
task of filling them. Still the gas flame is less steady than 
that of the kerosene lamp, and is therefore less serviceable 
for reading. For the poor man the kerosene light is a great 
blessing, while for all who can afford the extra cost the gas- 
light is a greater convenience. 



CHAPTER VI. 
ELECTRIC LIGHTING. 

The electric light differs widely from all modes of artifi- 
cial light previously invented. It is the latest method that 
man has discovered for the production of light. In its prac- 
tical form this invention is quite recent. In England the 
arc light was produced in lecture-room experiments as early 
as 1802. Prof. Michael Faraday, a learned Englishman and 
celebrated chemist, experimented many years in electricity 
and magnetism in the Royal Institution at London. He 
continued his studies and experiments in developing the 
science of electricity through his whole life, but he died, an 
old man, before a single electric arc was seen in the streets 
of London. 

In ancient times an invention was frequently the result 
of one man's efforts, but at the present time it is often quite 
otherwise. Many men are now engaged in the development 
of electric lighting. Charles Francis Brush was a farmer's 
boy in Ohio. He pushed himself through the Cleveland 
High School and graduated at the University of Michigan. 
He established a laboratory in Cleveland and turned his at- 
tention to the invention of apparatus for electric lighting. 
He was one of three or four great American inventors who 
successfully put into operation the dynamo and furnished 
electricity for the electrical lamp. This dynamo is a machine 
which produces electric currents by mechanical power. 
Brush's dynamo at the outset was so perfect and complete 



86 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



that for many years it has continued in regular use with but 
very little change. 

Elihu Thomson graduated at the Central High School in 
Philadelphia and taught chemistry in that school. He studied 
with great care the subject of electricity, giving special atten- 
tion to lighting. He organized the Thomson-Houston Elec- 
tric Company, and has pa- 
tented nearly two hundred 
inventions relating to electric 
lighting and other applica- 
tions of electricity. He was 
also the inventor of the sys- 
tem of electric welding. 

Among the great Ameri- 
can inventors in electrical 
science is Thomas Alva Edi- 
son. He was an Ohio boy 
whose Scotch mother taught 
him to read. When he was 
twelve years old he was a 
newsboy on the Grand Trunk 
Railroad. Here he acquired 
the habit of reading. He studied chemistry and conducted 
chemical experiments on the train. He learned to set type, 
and edited and printed a newspaper in the baggage car. He 
was constantly noticing the telegraph stations along the road, 
and he soon began to study electricity. 

One day the little child of a station master was playing 
on the track just as a freight car was moving down toward 
him. Almost as swift as lightning itself young Edison 
dashed out, stepped in front of the coming car, and at the 
risk of his own life snatched the child from danger. In 




EDISON'S HEROIC ACT. 



LIGHT — ELECTRIC LIGHTING. 8/ 

gratitude the station master, knowing the boy's interest in 
the telegraph, taught him how to use a machine. After that 
he acquired great skill in this art and operated in many sec- 
tions of the country, perfecting himself in the subject. 

For over twenty years he has had a large establishment, 
with an immense workshop and many mechanics, at Menlo 
Park, N. J., where he has devoted his whole attention to in- 
venting. He has perfected his system of duplex telegraphy 
and invented the carbon telephone-transmitter, the phono- 
graph, the platinum burner, and the carbon burner for the 
incandescent light. He has patented very many inventions, 
and his system of electric lighting for houses is now in gen- 
eral use. Edison's whole life is an interesting study for 
young people. 

At the present time the two methods of lighting by elec- 
tricity are the arc light and the incandescent light. The arc 
light is used for lighting large buildings like churches, halls, 
and railway stations, and for lighting the streets of a city. 
The incandescent light, or the glow-lamp as it is called in 
England, is in general use for lighting dwelling houses. 
This lamp consists of a glass bulb from which air has been 
excluded so that it is almost a perfect vacuum and in which 
is inserted a looped filament of carbon. The electricity is 
made to pass through this carbon wire, which is thereby 
heated to a white heat and thus furnishes the light. Being 
in a vacuum, the carbon is but slightly burned. It there- 
fore can be subjected to this heat for a long time without 
breaking or wearing out. 

At first Edison used a platinum wire in the little electric 
lamp. He wanted something better. He needed some 
form of bamboo or other vegetable fibre. He sent a man 
to explore China and Japan for bamboo. He sent another, who 



88 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

traveled twenty-three hundred miles up the Amazon River 
and finally reached the Pacific coast, searching for bamboo. 
He sent a third to Ceylon to spend years in a similar search. 
Eighty varieties of bamboo and three thousand specimens of 
other vegetable fibre were brought him. He tested them all ; 
three or four were found suitable. 

This system of incandescent lights has been rapidly ex- 
tended within a few years. There are millions of these 
lights now in use in this country. They are used not only 
for lighting the rooms of hotels and private houses, but also 
for lighting steamships, railway trains, and street cars, and 
for nearly all indoor illumination. This light is not as cheap 
as kerosene or gaslight, but it is so convenient and so simple, 
requiring no daily care, that it is rapidly coming into use in 
all towns and cities. 

Among its advantages may be named the four following 
points. Matches are not needed in making a light. Thus 
the danger from accidental fires, which have so frequently 
occurred from the careless use of matches, is avoided. Very 
little heat results from an electric light, while from kerosene 
lamps and gaslight much heat is produced. In warm weather 
this freedom from heat is agreeable. The burning lamp and 
the gas jet make the air of the room impure and unfit for 
breathing. This is not true of the electric light. In the use 
of kerosene and of illuminating gas there is frequently dan- 
ger of explosion. Not so with the electric light. 

It will be seen that we are thus using to-day for lighting 
purposes occasionally the candle, quite largely the kerosene 
lamp, and to a great extent in towns and cities the gaslight, 
and best of all — the cleanest, the neatest, giving the brightest 
light, requiring the least attention from the consumer, and 
manifesting the highest development of man's inventive 



LIGHT — ELECTRIC LIGHTING. 89 

genius thus far — the electric light. Here at present man's 
invention in this direction has stopped. What the next step 
will be, no one can tell. 

Slowly through the ages man has been developing. Grad- 
ually he has grown in mental power and advanced morally 
and spiritually. It is very clear that although he is an ani- 
mal and has the nature and desires of an animal, he has high 
mental capacity and is endowed with a spiritual nature, a 
soul. At the very beginning of creation we are told, "God 
said, Let there be light: and there was light." How and 
whence it came we cannot tell. It would almost seem that 
man in his effort to create light has kept step with his own 
development. The first light was produced from the sim- 
plest substances, solids: wood on the hearth, the pitch-pine 
knot, and the candle. Then followed light produced from 
liquids: olive oil, whale oil, refined petroleum. Afterward 
the inventive genius of man extracted from coal an invisible 
gas which would burn and give a bright, clear light. Ris- 
ing higher and higher, man soars above all solids, liquids, 
and gases, and with a sudden bound leaps almost out of the 
realm of matter and produces the electric light, which is 
merely a form of motion. How clearly the progress of man, 
his elevation, his civilization, his increased conveniences and 
luxuries of life are made to appear in this study of his 
methods of obtaining artificial light ! 



CHAPTER VII. 
LIGHTHOUSES. 

We have seen that artificial light is needed at night not 
only in houses, churches, and public halls, but also in the 
streets of large towns and cities for the benefit of those who 
have occasion to travel after dark. Still further, it has been 
found necessary to light the shores of the great sea, so that 
vessels may not run upon the rocks in the darkness and be 
stove to pieces. 

The building of lighthouses has chiefly developed during 
the present century, although a few lighthouses w^erc known 
to the ancients. The full history of lighthouses, if we could 
trace it, would be very interesting. If you were asked where 
the first lighthouse was built you would be quite likely to 
guess right the first time, because you know that the first 
ships and the first sailors were around the eastern part of the 
Mediterranean Sea. You would certainly say somewhere 
along the eastern coast of that sea. Now as a matter of 
fact there was a lighthouse on the island of Pharos, just in 
front of the city of Alexandria, which was built over three 
hundred years before Christ. This was one of the most cele- 
brated towers of antiquity; in fact, it is classed among the 
Seven Wonders of the World. It is quite likely, however, 
that this was not the first lighthouse. Probably there w^ere 
towers on the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora, and the 
Bosphorus which may have preceded the Pharos of Alexan- 
dria. 



LIGHT — LIGHTHOUSES. 9I 

The Romans built lighthouses at Ostia, Ravenna, Puteoli, 
and other ports. All these ancient lighthouses were towers 
on the top of which wood was burned at night, and the blaze 
of the burning wood furnished the light which was to guide 
the mariner. 

Two or three centuries ago many lighthouses were built 
along the shores of France and England. The first light- 
house on the coast of our country was Boston Light, at the 
entrance to Boston harbor, which was erected in the year 
1 7 16. Ever since the United States government has been 
established, much attention has been paid to our system of 
lighthouses. In 1852 a lighthouse board was established 
within the department of the United States Treasury. 

Great skill and engineering ability are needed in the con- 
struction of lighthouses. Our country has long Atlantic, 
Pacific, and lake coasts to be protected, besides numerous 
rivers extending over thousands of miles. All along these 
coasts and rivers our government has established and main- 
tains lighthouses. We have nearly a thousand lights on the 
Altantic coast, nearly two hundred upon the Pacific, and 
several hundred along the shores of the Northern Lakes. The 
United States has also many fog signals and almost innumer- 
able buoys. Great sums of money are necessary to build these 
lighthouses, many of which are now of iron. Twelve of our 
most famous lighthouses have cost a total sum of upward of 
$3,000,000 for their construction. Each year witnesses a 
steady improvement in the method of construction and of 
lighting this multitude of lighthouses. 

At fi.rst, fires burning at the tops of lighthouses were the 
only signals and guides at night. Then came the use of oil 
in lamps, with reflectors constructed for the purpose. At 
first in this country fish oil was used, and after that sperm 



gZ AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

oil. Within the last ten years refined petroleum has been 
almost universally adopted for lighthouses in the United 
States. At present about a million gallons are used in a 
year. We have only a few electric lights, though two are 
now in use on the Atlantic coast and two or three upon the 
lakes. 

In late years commerce has been rapidly extended. The 
merchant marine of the nations has grown to gigantic pro- 
portions. The amount of travel not only coastwise but across 
the ocean for pleasure and profit has become enormous. The 
nations are coming closer together and becoming better ac- 
quainted with each other. All this promotes civilization, and 
will ere long, it is to be hoped, operate to prevent interna- 
tional wars. 

England has many famous lighthouses. Great Britain is 
an island and her coast shows a continuous series of indenta- 
tions. Perhaps the most famous of her lighthouses is the 
Eddystone Light, a few miles off from Plymouth. 

If you will look on your map of Great Britain you will 
find that the county of Northumberland is the extreme 
northern end of England, bordering on the North Sea and 
adjoining the southeast corner of Scotland. Off that coast 
you will see a little group of islands called the Fame Islands. 
At low tide there are twenty-five of them. On one of these 
little islands, early in the present century, stood the Long- 
stone Lighthouse. It was a solitary place, and sometimes 
weeks would pass without any communication with the main- 
land. The keeper of this light was William Darling, a man 
of intelligence, who gave a fair education to each of his large 
family of children. One of these was a daughter whose name 
was Grace. Think what the youth of an intelligent girl would 
be on one of the Fame Islands. They are extremely desolate. 



LIGHT — LIGHTHOUSES. 93 

covered with rocks, and have very little vegetation and 
very little animal life except sea fowl. 

Through the channels between these islands the sea rushes 
with great force, and many a brave ship has gone down, dashed 
to pieces upon the rocks. In 1838 a large steamer named the 
Forfarshire struck these rocks and was broken in two within 
sight of Longstone Lighthouse. This steamer had on board 
more than forty passengers and twenty officers and crew. 
Three persons only were in the lighthouse — Mr. Darling, his 
wife, and Grace. The storm was furious, the sea was run- 
ning high, and through the mist, with the aid of his glass, 
Mr. Darling could make out the figures of the sufferers who 
were still clinging to the broken vessel. The lighthouse- 
keeper shrank from attempting their rescue, but Grace in- 
sisted that they must make the effort to save them from cer- 
tain death. Even the launching of the boat was extremely 
hazardous. The old lighthouse -keeper thought it impossible, 
but he could not resist the pleadings of his daughter. The 
mother helped to launch the boat; the father and daughter 
entered it and each took an oar. It was a terrible undertak- 
ing to row the frail boat, and it required not only great mus- 
cular power but the most determined courage. 

The rescuers succeeded in reaching the rocks, but found 
great difficulty in steadying the boat to prevent it from being 
destroyed on the sharp ridges. There were nine persons 
clinging to the broken vessel. These nine were all rescued. 
By tremendous energy, great skill, and almost superhuman 
efforts they were rowed back to the lighthouse in safety. 

This heroic deed of a young woman scarcely twenty-three 
years of age was heralded abroad until she became well known 
all over Europe, and the lonely lighthouse was soon the cen- 
tre of attraction to thousands of curious and sympathizing 



94 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



persons. The Humane Society sent her a most flattering 
vote of thanks, and a public subscription was raised amount- 
ing to about thirty-five hundred dollars. Testimonials of 
all kinds were showered upon her, which produced in her 
mind only a sense of wonder and grateful pleasure. 

This brief outline of Grace Darling is here given because 
her heroism served to call the attention of the world to 
the importance of lighthouses and the isolated life of the 

keepers and their 
families. You will 
find a picturesque 
account of the life 
of Grace Darling in 
the first volume of 
Chambers's " Mis- 
cellany." This 
story does not stand 
alone in lighthouse 
annals, but again 
and again has it 
been matched in 
later times and 
in our own country. 
One of the most famous lighthouse heroines in America 
was Miss Ida Lewis, whose father kept the Limestone Light- 
house at the entrance to the harbor of Newport, R. L This 
lighthouse-keeper's daughter very early in life became skilled 
in rowing and swimming. One day, when she was eighteen 
years of age, four young men were upset in a boat in the 
harbor. Ida quickly launched her own skiff, pushed off, res- 
cued them, and brought them safely to shore. 

At another time three drunken soldiers had stove a hole 




GRACE DARLING. 



LIGHT — LIGHTHOUSES. 95 

in their boat not far from the lighthouse. Two swam ashore 
and Ida reached their boat in season to save the third. Two 
years afterward a sheep was being driven down the wharf 
when the animal plunged into the water. Three men run- 
ning along the shore in pursuit found a boat and pushed out 
after the sheep. A heavy " sou'wester " was blowing and the 
boat was carried away into deep water. Ida Lewis, in spite 
of the high wind, rowed out in her little skiff and brought 
them safely ashore. 

One winter a young scapegrace stole a sailboat from the 
wharf and put out to sea. About midnight the gale drove 
the boat upon the Limestone rocks a mile from the light, but 
the boy clung to the mast all night. In the morning Ida 
Lewis found him, as she said, "shaking and God-blessing me 
and praying to be set on shore. " By these and other instances 
in which Miss Lewis rescued those in danger she became 
famous, and her praises were heralded in the newspapers and 
spoken at many firesides. The citizens of Newport presented 
her with a boat as a token of their admiration of her bravery. 

These famous instances and many more that could be added 
to them would seem to indicate that life in a lighthouse, with 
the mind constantly running out to the sea, becoming famil- 
iar with the storms that rise, and observing the dash of the 
waves and the roar of the wind — life inured to hardship, but 
shut up within the safe keeping of the solid walls of the little 
tower high above the raging waves — it would seem that such 
a life is calculated to give courage, strength, and fortitude, 
and to endue the heart with a heroic forgetfulness of self. 

How important is the position of a lighthouse-keeper! 
Many lives are in his hands, and on his fidelity depends the 
safety of millions of dollars of property. Boats and ships of 
all kinds, steamers great and small, sail away from one shore 



96 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

of the vast sea to the opposite shore, or along the coast, all 
in comparative safety because of the various beacon lights. 

Indeed, is not the lighthouse itself a great lesson in morals? 
Every one of us — every one of the seventy million people of 
the United States has a part in the lighthouse. It is we, the 
people, who are furnishing the government with its resources, 
and it is the great government of our country that builds the 
lighthouses to warn mariners of danger. The modern light- 
house is the symbol of benevolence. It carries with it the 
lesson of " loving thy neighbor as thyself." This is the lesson 
of the lighthouse to the people of the land, though its service 
is performed for the people of the sea. 




CYRUS H. MCCORMICK. 



SECTION III.-FOOD. 



SECTION III.— FOOD. 



CHAPTER I. 
UNCULTIVATED FOODS. 

Heat and light — each is necessary for our bodily comfort 
and well-being. We have seen that much time and thought 
have been spent during the past three hundred years in pro- 
viding the most satisfactory methods for heating and lighting 
our houses. We have found that wood and coal in our fire- 
places, stoves, and furnaces have given us the best heat. We 
have learned that kerosene and gas made from coal are the 
most common sources of light. Even electricity, the latest 
means for producing light and heat, usually needs the power 
of steam for its development; and heat is necessary to pro- 
duce steam. We have a common name for the wood, the 
coal, the gas, and the oil, from the burning of which heat and 
light result; this name is fuel. 

Another form of fuel is even more necessary than coal and 
wood. In the winter we warm our rooms so that we may not 
suffer from the cold ; but the stove does not warm us when out 
of doors. Then we put on our heavy winter wraps, but these 
give us no warmth : they merely keep in the heat of the body 
or keep out the cold blasts of the wind. We all know that the 
body is warm of itself; that there is something within us that 
produces heat, like a fire. When our fingers become chilled 
by the frosty air we may warm them with our breath. The 



lOO AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

temperature of a room may be seventy degrees or less, but if 
we place the bulb of a thermometer beneath the tongue we 
shall find that the mercury rises to ninety-eight degrees. 

The fire in the body and the fire in the stove act very much 
alike. If the draughts of the stove are closed tight and no air 
is admitted, the fire dies down and goes out. If the air which 
enters the body is foul, the fire feels the effect and our health 
is injured. If the lungs are filled with water or anything else 
which keeps out the air, the fire goes out and life is lost. 

The fuel which we call food is just as necessary for the 
fire in our body as is wood or coal for the fire in the stove. 
Three times a day or oftener we take this food-fuel into our 
bodies; thus we keep the fire steadily burning which makes 
us warm and keeps us alive. 

On the other hand, fuel for the body must be very differ- 
ent from fuel for a stove. In the stove heat alone is wanted; 
therefore one form of fuel is enough. In the body bones 
must be enlarged and strengthened, muscles must be devel- 
oped, fat must be provided in sufficient quantities, and brain- 
matter must be produced. Therefore the food-fuel must pro- 
vide not only heat but also the different materials of which 
the body is made. One kind of food is necessary for the 
bones, another for the blood, another for the flesh, and an- 
other for the nerves. Thus while in studying common fuel 
we have only to learn about wood, either in the form of trees 
or pressed into the form of coal, in studying food-fuel we find 
that the kinds are almost numberless. Meat and vegetables, 
fish and fruit, roots and nuts, in their infinite varieties, are 
all included in the word food. 

We are told that all matter belongs to one of three king- 
doms — the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms. 
From two of these three divisions we obtain most of our food. 



FOOD — UNCULTIVATED FOODS. lOI 

Food may be divided into two classes then — animal food and 
vegetable food. In animal food we have the meat of wnld 
animals and of domestic animals. In early days, when the 
number of people was small, the supply of wild animals was 
large. A great part of the food in those days was obtained 
by hunting and fishing. To-day most of the meat comes from 
domestic animals, so that the keeping of herds and flocks is 
one of the great industries of the time. Fish are still impor- 
tant in our lists of foods, but the flesh of wild animals is less 
and less used for meat. 

Three hundred years ago the Indians had this country 
to themselves. They were few in number and were scattered 
over a vast territory. The forests abounded in wild game and 
the lakes and rivers were filled with fish. Love of hunting 
and fishing held the first place in the pleasures of the red 
man. The hunting grounds extended far and wide in every 
direction. Each tribe had its own hunting and fishing 
grounds, and it was considered an act of war for any tribe of 
Indians to encroach upon the territory of other tribes. 

"Such places as they chose for their abode," says Hub- 
bard's History, "were usually at the falls of great rivers, 
or near the seaside, where was any convenience for catching 
such fish as every summer and winter used to come up the 
coast. At such times they used, like good fellows, to make 
all common, and then those who had entertained their neigh- 
bors at the seaside expected the like kindness from them again 
up higher in the country." 

The kinds of wild animals that the Indians hunted were 
very numerous. One man describes the appearance of an 
Indian's "room of skins." He says: "There they showed 
me many hides and horns, both beasts of chase of the stink- 
ing foot — such as roes, foxes, jackals, wolves, wildcats, 



102 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



raccoons, porcupines, skunks, muskrats, squirrels, and 
sables — and beasts of chase of the sweet foot — buck, red deer, 
reindeer, moose, bear, beaver, otter, hare, and martin." 
Captain John Smith tells of the fowl that the red men hunted. 

He mentions 




eagles, 
cranes, 
ducks, 
drakes. 



hawks, 

geese, 

shel- 

t e al , 



gulls, and tur- 
keys. 

The variety 
of fish caught by 
the Indians was 
also very large. 
** Higher up at 
the falls of the 
great rivers they 
used to take sal- 
mon, shad, and 
ale wives, that 
used in great 
quantities, more than cartloads, in the spring, to pass up into 
the fresh-water ponds and lakes." "In March, April, May, 
and half June," says John Smith, "here is cod in abundance; 
in May, June, July, and August, mullet and sturgeon ; herring, 
if any desire them; I have taken many." Again he writes 
of w^hales, grampuses, hake, haddock, mackerel, sharks, cun- 
ners, bass, perch, eels, crabs, lobsters, mussels, and 05^sters. 
We may also divide vegetable food into two classes — that 
which nature provides without the aid of man, or wild vege- 
tables, and that which requires cultivation, or cultivated 



INDIANS HUNTING GAME. 



FOOD — UNCULTIVATED FOODS. IO3 

vegetables. Many forms of nuts, berries and fruits, and 
some forms of common ground vegetables grow wild. The 
red men found these in great abundance. 

John Smith found in New England currants, mulber- 
ries, gooseberries, plums, walnuts, chestnuts, and straw- 
berries, besides other fruits of which he did not know the 
names. He made a journey up the Potomac River, and re- 
ported that the hills yielded no less plenty and variety of 
fruit than the river furnished abundance of fish. 

Smith also described acorns whose bark was white and 
sweetish; he added that these acorns, when boiled, afforded 
a sweet oil that the red men kept in gourds to anoint their 
heads and joints. The Indians also ate the fruit of this 
acorn, made into bread. There were plums of three kinds 
and cherries. Smith discovered also a great abundance of 
vines "that climb the tops of the highest trees in some 
places. Where they are not overshadowed from the sun, they 
are covered with fruit, though never pruned nor manured." 

Hunting and fishing are carried on in much the same way 
to-day as they were centuries ago. The gun has taken the 
place of the bow and arrow, and fishing implements have 
been somewhat improved. But to capture and kill is now, as 
formerly, all that is needed to obtain this form of food, if the 
wild animals themselves can be found. Wild vegetables may 
be gathered to-day in just the way that our ancestors gathered 
them, though they are not found in so great quantities be- 
cause of the increase of cultivation. In studying the changes 
in the modes of living that have occurred in this country dur- 
ing the last three hundred years, we find that almost all the 
improvements in the production of food have been in the 
planting, cultivating, and harvesting of food, and the bring- 
ing it to market. 



CHAPTER 11. 



CULTIVATED FOODS. 

Hunting and fishing did not furnish either sufficient or 
satisfactory food for the Indians. A portion of their time 
was spent in cultivating certain products of the soil. Black 
Hawk, a famous Indian chief, writes : " When we returned 

to our village in the 




spring from our hunting 
grounds we would open 
the caches and take out 
corn and other provi- 
sions which had been put 
up in the fall, and then 
commence repairing our 
lodges. As soon as this. 
is accomplished we re- 
pair the fences around 
our fields and clean them 
off ready for planting 
corn. This work is done by our women. The men, during 
this time, are feasting on dried venison, bear's meat, wild 
fowl and corn. 

" Our women plant the corn, and as soon as they get done 
we make a feast and dance the corn dance. At this feast our 
young braves select the young woman they wish to have for 
a wife. When this is over we feast again and have our 
national dance. 



THE CORN DANCE. 



FOOD — CULTIVATED FOODS. IO5 

" When our national dance is over, our corn-fields hoed, 
and every weed dug up, and our corn about knee high, all 
our young men would start in a direction toward sundown to 
hunt deer and buffalo, and the remainder of our people start 
to fish. Every one leaves the village and remains away about 
forty days. They then return, the hunting party bringing in 
dried buffalo and deer meat, the others dried fish. 

"This is a happy season of the year; having plenty of 
provision, such as beans, squashes, and other produce, with 
our dried meat and fish, we continue to make feasts and visit 
each other until our corn is ripe. 

" When the corn is fit for use another great ceremony takes 
place, with feasting and returning thanks to the Great Spirit 
for giving us corn. We continue our sport and feasting until 
the corn is all secured. We then prepare to leave our village 
for our hunting grounds." 

Thus we see that the most important crop among the In- 
dians was maize or Indian corn. This grain is specially 
suited to the climate and soil of a large portion of the coun- 
try ; it was wholly unknown to the Europeans who first came 
to America. 

John Smith in Virginia and Roger Williams in New Eng- 
land were much interested in the Indian corn. It is from 
their writings that we learn how the red men cultivated and 
used this strange product of the New World. 

As corn was the Indians' main dependence, they ate it at 
all times and in various ways. They roasted the green ears 
in the ashes; sometimes they cut the kernels from the cob 
and boiled them with beans, making a kind of succotash. 
Meal was made by pounding the kernels in a wooden mortar; 
if the corn was old it was soaked over night and pounded in 
the morning. 



lOO 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



This meal also was cooked in different ways. Sometimes 
it was wrapped in corn husks and boiled ; at other times it 
was mixed with water and made into cakes, which were 
baked in the ashes of the fire. Often a pudding was made 

from the meal, in which black- 
berries were placed. When 
the Indians travelled, they 
were accustomed to carry- 
enough of this meal to last 
several days, either in a small 
basket or a hollow leathern 
girdle. 

Such was life among the 
Indians. Usually food was 
plenty and feasting was com- 
mon, but at times food was 
scarce and fasting was neces- 
sary. If the Indian had 
sufficient for to-day, he cared 
little for to-morrow. If the 
corn crop failed or if the 
hunting expedition turned out badly, the red man accepted 
it as a necessary evil and made no complaint. 

The first Englishmen to learn of the foods that could be 
obtained in the New World were two captains sent out by Sir 
Walter Raleigh to explore the Atlantic coast of America. 
They returned full of enthusiasm for the fertile soil and the 
delightful climate of Virginia. They praised also the kind- 
ness of the Indians, who provided them with the best of food 
• — deer, hares, fish, walnuts, melons, cucumbers, peas, and 
corn. 

Apparently there was an abundance of food in the New 




CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

(From the history of Virginia, by Captain John 
Smith.) 



FOOD — CULTIVATED FOODS. lO/ 

World — flesh, fish, fruits, nuts, vegetables, and grain. The 
sailors were not farmers, however ; nor were the colonists 
who came over the next year. They had no knowledge of 
the labor necessary to till the soil and raise the food, and 
after a year on Roanoke Island they returned to England. 

Twenty years later the colonists at Jamestown were no more 
ready to labor at farming than those at Roanoke had been. 
Numbers died from hunger during the first summer, but the 
leader, John Smith, was able, from his own strength of char- 
acter, to hold survivors to the work until a fair abundance of 
corn had been obtained. Meanwhile Smith managed to buy 
or borrow provisions from the Indians. 

The settlers at Plymouth arrived in early winter and found 
a climate much colder than that of England or Holland. They 
could not hope to harvest a crop before the next autumn, and 
they also were dependent upon the red men for many months. 

Soon after the Mayflozvcr arrived in Provincetown harbor 
an expedition was sent out to search for the best spot to build 
a village. They followed the tracks of Indians, but could not 
find them nor their dwellings. The first sign of human life 
was a piece of clear ground which had been planted some 
years before. Going a little farther they found a field in 
which the stubble was new, showing that the ground had 
been recently cultivated. Finally they came upon ''heaps of 
sand newly paddled with their hands." Led by curiosity the 
Pilgrims digged in these places and found several baskets 
filled with corn. This grain seemed to the Pilgrims a '' very 
goodly sight," though they had never seen corn before. 
They carried the grain back to the ship, and when the In- 
dians who owned the corn were found, the Pilgrims gladly 
paid them its full value. 

When spring came the colonists at Plymouth began mak- 



I08 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

ing preparations for planting. An Indian, named Squanto, 
who had previously been carried to England and had learned 
to speak some English, showed himself very friendly. He 
taught them how to prepare the fish which must be put in 
every hill for a fertilizer. He directed the planting and cul- 
tivating of the fields. As a result they had "a good in- 
crease." They were not so successful in other ways, for 
their barley crop was very light and their peas dried up with 
the sun. 

A curious story is found in some old records. The dogs 
in a Plymouth colony town caused the farmers great trouble 
by digging up the alewives which they were accustomed to 
place in the hills. Therefore a law was passed that required 
the owner of every dog either to keep him securely tied for 
forty days after the fields were prepared, or to tie a fore- 
paw to his head so that it would be impossible for the dog 
to dig in the newly prepared hill. 

Two years later the Pilgrims are said to have had nearly 
sixty acres of ground well planted with corn, and many gar- 
dens filled with fruits and vegetables. However, the crop 
was light, mainly because the colonists had been too weak, 
from lack of food, properly to attend to it. A famine would 
have followed for the third time had not a vessel arrived 
from England, in August, bringing provisions sufficient for 
the winter. 

For several years the Pilgrims were compelled to live 
partly upon wild game and fish. One summer their main 
support was obtained by the use of the only boat that re- 
mained, with which they caught large quantities of bass. 
They also obtained clams when they could not get fish, used 
ground-nuts in place of bread, and caught many wild fowl in 
the creeks and marshes. 



FOOD — CULTIVATED FOODS. 



109 




AN ANCIENT PLOW. 



The colonists had no milk, butter, nor cheese for the first 
three years in Plymouth. There were no domestic animals 
in New England until, in the spring of 1623, a vessel arrived 
bringing the first cows. In time beef and veal were added to 
the list of foods, and soon other domestic animals were brought 
over. By the middle of the fourth summer the village of New 
Plymouth was reported to 
have nearly two hundred 
inhabitants, with some cat- 
tle and goats, and many 
swine and poultry. 

The tools used by the 
early colonists were, like 
their houses and furniture, 
of the rudest manufacture. 
Agriculture, such as exists 

in the United States to-day, was entirely unknown two cen- 
turies ago. The plow was little used and the few plows 
among the colonists were inconvenient, heavy tools. The 
important planting and cultivating implement used by the 
farmers was the hoe. 

The village or plantation blacksmith made the tools for 
the farmers, and they were rudely formed and shaped. In 
harvest time the hoe was again called into use, as well as the 
roughly constructed scythes and pruninghooks. The mus- 
cle-developing flail separated the grain from the straw, and 
the miller ground it into meal, or flour, taking " toll " for his 
pay — that is, a fixed fraction of the product. 

How the system of agriculture has changed during these 
two centuries, or rather during the last century, for few of 
the improvements are yet a hundred years old ! As in the 
methods of producing heat and light, inventions have done 



no AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

wonders in providing us with a greater amount and a larger 
variety of food at a reduced cost. Formerly all farm-work 
was done by the use of great muscular pow:r. Only a strong 
man can wield the hoe for hours at a time. To walk behind 
a plow, guiding the horse and holding the plow in place, is 
no light task. To swing a scythe from early morning until 
late in the day severely taxes the strength. To thresh grain 
upon the barn floor with a flail day after day needs much 
physical endurance. The labor of many men was required 
to manage even a comparatively small farm. To-day all 
these conditions are changed. 

At the present time " the most desirable farm-hand is the 
man with the cunning brain who can get the most work out 
of a machine without breaking it. The farm laborer finds 
himself advanced to the ranks of skilled labor. The man 
who plows uses his muscle only in guiding the machine. 
The man who operates the harrow has half a dozen levers to 
lighten his labor. The sower walks leisurely behind a drill 
and works brakes. The reaper needs a quick brain and a 
quick hand — not necessarily a strong arm nor a powerful 
back. The threshers are merely assistants to a machine. 
The men who heave the wheat into the bins only press but- 
tons." 



38 



CHAPTER III. 
IMPLEMENTS FOR PLANTING. 

George was determined to be a farmer. He was but 
twelve years of age, yet he felt sure that he knew his own 
mind. He said to himself and to his friends that life out of 
doors, life on a farm, was the best and healthiest kind of life. 
He declared that to raise the food of the world was the most 
important service that man could do for his fellow-beings. 

The boy lived in a city. He had always lived in a city 
and had never seen a farm. He had never been away fiom 
home. His home was a flat, or apartment, occupying a por- 
tion of one floor of a ten-story block. His knowledge of life 
was limited entirely to city life. He had been to the park; 
he had seen there trees and shrubbery, grass and flowers. 
Yet he had never visited the park alone ; he had never seen 
any of the work needed in caring for the trees and flowers. 
He knew absolutely nothing about gardening or farming ; he 
could not tell the difference between a hoe and a rake ; he 
would not be able to answer the simplest questions about 
farm life. 

Yet George had decided to be a farmer, and he had made 
up his mind to study the subject of farming at once. He 
proposed to ask Uncle Ben all sorts of questions every chance 
he could get. He intended to obtain books from the library 
that would tell him what he needed to know. Oh, could he 
only go into the country, try for himself life upon a farm, 
and see with his own eyes what a farmer had to do ! 



112 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

So George went to work. He did not neglect his school 
duties, but carefully prepared his daily lessons. When these 
were done he was ready to study agriculture. He did not 
know where to begin with books, so he asked questions. 

"Uncle Ben," he said one evening as the family was 
gathered around the library lamp, " how does it happen that 
a farmer sometimes raises tomatoes and sometimes potatoes? 
What does he do if he wants one rather than the other? " 

"Well, George," was the laughing reply, "I think that 
you have much to learn before you make a successful farmer. 
Don't you know that if he wants potatoes he plants potatoes?" 

"Why, I suppose so," said George. "Then if he desires 
apples, does he plants apples? " 

" Hardly," said his uncle. " Seeds would be better than 
entire apples." 

George was started and for the rest of the evening he 
asked no more questions, his whole attention being turned to 
the large encyclopedia on his knee. When next he plied his 
uncle with questions it was evident that he had already learned 
something. 

" When a farmer plants a potato, he puts it in a hole and 
covers it up. I have read that he plows the ground first. 
What does he do that for? " 

"For two reasons, I suppose," replied Uncle Ben. "The 
roots and sprouts grow better in a soil that has been softened. 
When the ground is unplowed, it is baked hard. Besides, 
plowing turns the soil over, brings new dirt to the top, and 
generally mixes it all together." 

"Oh, yes!" said George. "Then I must learn about 
plowing first." 

George obtained as good a knowledge of plows and tillage 
as was possible from books. In order fully to understand the 



FOOD — IMPLEMENTS FOR PLANTING. II3 

subject, it would be necessary to see the plows and use them. 
But that could not come yet. The books told him that the 
earliest and simplest way to till the soil was with a spade. 
From them George learned, what most boys and girls know, 
what a spade was, and that a spade was all that was absolute- 
ly needed to soften the soil and prepare it for planting. 

To spade a piece of ground is slow work; it is also hard 
work. Could not some method be devised so that the spad- 
ing or tilling could be done by horses or oxen? This led to 
the invention of the plow. This was made thousands of years 
ago. The kooloo plow, still in use in India, was one of the 
earliest and was very rude. It was made entirely of wood, 
the sharp part of the plow being like a thorn in shape, but 
very thick and strong. 

As the centuries went on, iron began to be used ; and early 
in the history, of iron it was applied to plows. They were 
still made of wood, but iron plates were placed over the 
wood, where the instrument tore into the ground. Later the 
plow itself was made of iron, leaving the handles still formed 
of wood. This iron plow would sometimes become covered 
with soil and so be almost useless. This was corrected by 
the use of steel shares instead of iron. This brought George 
to the modern plow. 

George was not content with simply obtaining an idea 
about plows; he wished to know all that he could about 
them. He obtained books that gave complete accounts of the 
varieties of plows, the ways in which they were used, and the 
work which they should do. He learned that a plow should 
be fitted to its task. It should be as light as possible, easily 
drawn, and it should run with even steadiness, at a uniform 
depth. It should not only turn the soil over, but should 
thoroughly powder it and bury the Vv^eeds. 



114 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

To his great surprise George also learned that some of the 
modern plows were as much superior to the ordinary plow as 
that was to the spade. The sulky plow is easier for the 
horses than the common plow ; it makes furrows of different 
depths ; and it has a seat for the farmer. Sometimes several 
plowshares are placed side by side and drawm by a large 
number of horses. This is called a gang plow. Steam and 
wind and water and even electricity are coming into use to fur- 
nish power for plows, in place of the animal power of horses. 

"Well, Uncle Ben," said George one evening, "now I 
understand something about plowing and tillage. The next 
thing a farmer does in the spring is to plant his potatoes and 
corn, is it not? " 

"Yes," was the reply. 

"Well, then," said George, "that w411 not take me long 
to learn. All there is to do is to dig a hole, put in the potato, 
and cover it with earth." 

" I am afraid that you will find that the job is not quite 
so simple as that. Has the farmer nothing to plant but po- 
tatoes? " asked the uncle. 

"Yes," said the boy. "Corn and turnips and oats and 
wheat and pumpkins and lots of other things." 

" Would you plant a kernel of corn in just the same way 
that you would a potato? " 

"No, I suppose not," was the reply. 

" And do you think that every farmer does all his plant- 
ing by hand? Does he not have tools to help him? " 

Thus George was started on a new line of thought. He 
read of the sower, as he slowly walks the length of the field, 
throwing the grain right and left. Even this work is better 
and more quickly done by machinery. The hand sower is a 
little machine which the farmer straps to his shoulders. The 



FOOD — IMPLEMENTS FOR PLANTING. Il5 

hopper of the sower is filled with grain and, as the handle is 
turned, the grain is scattered broadcast to as great a distance 
as possible. More saving of labor still is the horse sower, 
which is simply the hand sower on a larger scale. Some- 
times the seed is inserted in the ground by means of grain 
drills, which deposit the grain more evenly and at the same 
time cover it with earth. 

After learning how to sow seed, George began to inquire 
into the subject of planting. Many machines have been in- 
vented for this purpose which save much labor. The most 
important are the corn planter and the potato planter. Ma- 
chines for planting other vegetables are much like these. 
The hand corn planter, which is used on small farms, is 
carried in tl^ hand of the farmer. At each place where he 
wishes a hill of corn he strikes into the ground the planter, 
which leaves the kernels at the proper depth and covers them 
with soil. The horse corn planter is a form of grain drill, 
which does the same work as the hand planter. 

The potato planter is a simple machine, though it does a 
variety of work. It cuts the potatoes into slices and drops 
them through a tube into a furrow which the plow-like part 
of the planter makes. The slices are dropped at regular 
spaces and are covered with dirt by the machine itself. In 
other words, the farmer puts potatoes in the hopper and 
drives the machine the length of the field. The planter does 
the rest of the work, saving the farmer the labor of slicing 
the potatoes, digging the hole, dropping the vegetable and 
covering it with earth. 

All this and much more George learned during the next 
two weeks. Then he showed that he was read}^ for a new 
subject by asking his uncle what the farmer did betw^een 
seedtime and harvest. 



Il6 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

"I suppose," said the boy, "that most farmers get their 
planting done almost before summer begins. Then it must 
be some time before they begin to harvest the grain and dig 
the potatoes. What do they do all summer? " 

"I think," replied his uncle, "that you will have to go 
into the country and see some things for yourself. As the 
school term is nearly finished, I believe that you must visit a 
good farmer and spend the summer and autumn with him. 
Then you will know something of a real farmer's life and 
work. But to answer your question by asking another, Did 
you ever hear of weeds? " 

After that George asked few questions. He began to 
think that he was showing too much ignorance. From that 
evening until the end of June he had no thoughts but of the 
farm. He read but little and waited to study his subject at 
close hand. But he did discover that a farmer's life is not 
too easy in the summer. He learned that the ground must 
be kept free from weeds and continually loosened. He 
found that the farm^er uses his hoe in deadly hostility to the 
weeds ; that he makes his horse do a part of the work of hoe- 
ing; that the harrow and the cultivator keep the soil loose 
between the rows. 

When the summer came, George felt that he had some 
knowledge of tillage, of sowing and planting, and of weed- 
ing; this was book knowledge. Now he hoped to get into 
the inside and learn something of the farmer's methods of 
harvesting. "Then," he thought, " I can be a farmer." 



CHAPTER IV. 
IMPLEMENTS FOR HARVESTING. 

George awoke the first morning at the farm to hear the 
roosters crowing, the cows mooing, the sheep bleating, and 
the men cheerily whistling as they hurried about the chores. 
No thought of turning over for another nap entered his head, 
but in quick time he was dressed and ready for the morning 
meal. Breakfast over, George hastened out of doors and was 
soon eagerly watching Tom, who had been directed to cut the 
grass around the edges of one of the fields which had been 
previously mowed. Here for the first time he saw a scythe 
and learned its use. 

For a while George w^atched Tom's steady swing of the 
sc3^the as he slowly cut a swath the length of the field. Then 
he hastened to another field where the mowing machine was 
steadily moving across the lot. What an improvement! 
What a saving of labor! How easily those knives moved 
through the grass, laying every spire low as soon as it was 
touched ! How much more even the cut, though Tom was 
skilled with the scythe ! The horses drew the machine with 
ease and the driver had a comfortable seat. However, it was 
plain that he must keep his head clear and his eyes open, to 
properly attend to every part of the instrument. 

When noon came George was tired and heated, and he 
gladly remained in the house after dinner. Here he found 
his favorite encyclopedia and was soon hunting up the history 
of the invention of the mower. He was surprised to learn 



ii8 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



how short a time it had been in use. From the beginning of 
history the crooked sickle and the straighter scythe had been 
almost the only tools used for cutting grass and grain. Not 
until about the middle of the present century had practical 
mowing machines come into use. But now, except on very 

small or rocky farms, 
the horse mower is 
an absolute neces- 
sity. 

The next day 
George again visited 
the fields to see the 
next step in the proc- 
ess of making hay. 
First he found Tom, 
with a fork, turning 
over the grass which 
he had mowed the 
day before. Then 
he went to the other 
field, where he saw the same work being done by a machine. 
The mower had left the grass in heaps so that the sun could 
reach only the surface. It is necessary that hay should be 
thoroughly dried as quickly as possible. Across the field and 
back again went the hay tedder, its forks picking up the 
grass and tossing it in every direction. One horse only was 
needed, and the driver was a boy. 

The third day George was again in the field. Once more 
the grass was turned. Then in the late afternoon it was pre- 
pared for the barn. Tom could only use the small hand rake, 
for his work was close to the fence ; he was simply cleaning 
up what the machines had failed to reach. But in the field 




MOWING WITH SCYTHES, 



i 



FOOD — IMPLEMENTS FOR HARVESTING. II9 

where George had watched the mower and the tedder, ma- 
chinery and horse power were again in use. A horse went 
back and forth, drawing a horse rake behind him. Now and 
then, at regular intervals, up came the rake, a pile of hay 
was left, and on went the horse. Then a hay sweep passed 
along at right angles to the rake and soon the hay was in 
piles. As the field was very smooth and free from stones, a 
hay loader was used to place the hay upon the wagon. A 
boy drove the horses, two men laid the load, and soon the 
wagon was started for the barn. The old-fashioned, slow, 
hard work of lifting the hay by the forkful into the barn 
was no longer necessary. Hay forks, run by horse power^ 
grappled the hay, and lifted the load. Conveyers carried the 
hay to the right point and dropped it in the mow. 

Such was the work done during the first three days that 
George spent on the farm. He saw the old-fashioned hand 
work and the modern use of labor-saving machinery. Then 
he studied his books. In them he found that the hand labor 
of cutting, drying, and housing the hay used to cost about 
five dollars a ton, and that now, with the best of modern 
machines, it need cost not more than one dollar a ton. This 
machinery is of great value to the farmer and also to those 
who buy the hay ; for the farmer can sell his hay at a lower 
price, since it costs him less to make it. 

This was the last of the haying. For several weeks 
George watched the hoes and the harrows, as they kept the 
gardens and fields in good condition. Then came harvest- 
time. Potatoes were first in George's thoughts, and when 
he learned that they were to be dug on the morrow he was 
thoroughly aroused. But he met with a sore disappoint- 
ment. The potatoes were not dug by machinery. The 
common hoe or the specially shaped potato hoe were the only 



I20 



AMERICAN INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS. 



tools. Then the back-aching work of picking up potatoes 
added to his disgust, and he declared that he never would 
raise many potatoes. He learned that plows sometimes help 
the hoes, but that potato-digging machines have never come 
into general use, though good ones have been invented. 

At last grain harvest-time came. This was the time to 
which George had long looked forward. Now he could see 
the wheat cut and threshed. This he was sure was the best 

work of the farmer. 
But when he saw Tom 
take the short, crooked 
sickle, cut some grain 
with that, gather it in 
his arms, and tie a 
cord around it, he 
could scarcely control 
himself. " Is that the 
way grain is harvest- 
ed?" he said. Then 
when he saw the grain 
laid on the barn floor 
and struck rapidly by flails in the hands of two men, he de- 
clared, " If that is what the farmer has to do to get a little 
grain, then I do not want to be a farmer." 

"Well," said Mr. Miller, "that is just what all farmers 
had to do until within fifty years." 

But George soon saw a different method. This first hand- 
work had been merely to harvest a small amount of early 
grain; a few days later the machines were brought out. 
Now George was happy. At last he saw a reaping machine 
and a combined reaper and binder. This interested him the 
most. He watched the machine as the horses drew it along 




A REAPER AND BINDER. 



FOOD — IMPLEMENTS FOR HARVESTING. 



121 



the edge of the standing grain. He saw the grain cut and 
laid upon a platform, carried up into the machine, taken by 
two arms called packers, gathered by them into bundles, 
bound by cords and thrown to, the ground. What more 
could be asked of any machine? 

And yet there is a new type of harvester that has been 
used in San Joaquin valley, California. It cuts a swarth fifty- 
two feet in width. It 
not only cuts the grain 
but it threshes it as well. 
It makes the sacks and 
fills them as it travels 
over the field. It is said 
to cut an area of a hun- 
dred acres a day, and at 
the same time thresh the 
grain and fill fifteen hun- 
dred sacks. 

Later in the autumn 
came the thresher. 
That belonging to Farm- 
er Miller was run by 

horse power. Two horses stood upon a platform, constantly 
stepping forward but not moving from their position. In- 
stead the platform moved backward and this turned the ma- 
chinery. The men placed the grain stalks in the hopper and 
the threshed grain came out of the machine, flowing into 
sacks, which when filled were tied by the men and set aside 
ready for the market. 

The reaper and the thresher seemed to George the great- 
est of inventions. He obtained a book on inventions, and for 
many days he was buried in it. He read of the Englishman, 




THE MCCORMICK REAPER. 



122 AMERICAN INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS. 

Henry Ogle, whose reaper, made in 1822, aroused the anger 
of the working people, who threatened to kill the manufac- 
turers if they continued to make the machines; of Patrick 
Bell's invention, which, though successful, was forgotten for 
twenty or thirty years; of Cyrus H. McCormick, the Ameri- 
can, whose reaper first obtained a lasting success. 

Most of all he was interested in the account of the first 
trial of reapers in England, at the time of the world's fair in 
1 85 I. What a joke it was for the London Times to poke fun 
at the McCormick machine, as it was exhibited in the Crystal 
Palace ! How the great newspaper did wish that it had kept 
•quiet when a few days later it was compelled to report the 
complete success of the ridiculed reaper! 

The trial took place in Essex, about forty-five miles from 
London. Two hundred farmers were present, ready to laugh 
at failure or to accept any successful machine. The wheat 
was not ripe; the crop was heavy; and the day was rainy. 
The Hussey reaper was first tried but was soon clogged by 
the green, wet grain. The judges proposed to discontinue 
the trial, as the conditions were so unfavorable. But the 
agent of the McCormick reaper protested. His machine 
would work under any conditions; he wished that the gentle- 
men who had taken the pains to come to the trial should have 
a chance to see the McCormick. Accordingly it was brought 
forward and, in spite of everything, it went steadily forward, 
cutting all before it. Success was evident, and the English 
farmers gave three hearty cheers for the American reaping- 
machine. 

Another trial, at which the reaper was timed, showed that 
it could cut twenty acres a day with ease. Even the laboring 
men realized that the machine would come at once into use ; 
one, who was among the interested spectators, took the sickle, 



FOOD — IMPLEMENTS FOR HARVESTING. 



123 



which he happened to have with him, and broke it in two 
across his knee ; he said that he would no longer need that. 

Four years later a trial took place in France also. Here 
three American, two English, and two French machines were 

tested. McCormick's reaper easily 
came out ahead, with the other Ameri- 
can machines close behind. At the 
same time four threshing machines 
were tested. Six men with their flails, 
working as hard as they could, ob- 
tained fifty-four quarts of 



wheat in half an hour; 
the American thresher 
gave out six hundred and 
seventy-three quarts in the 
same time ! 

We have spent much 




THRESHING WITH FLAIL. 



time on farming machin- 
ery. We must now leave George to a further study of farm 
life and farm v/ork. So far he has only examined tools and 
machinery. He has learned from experience, however, that 
a modern farmer has much more than this to learn, and much 
work to do that cannot be done by machinery. He realizes that 
much study is needed to make a successful farmer. He finds 
that nearly every State in the Union has one or more agricul- 
tural colleges, and that the United States does its share in 
giving aid and information to farmers. He still desires to 
be a farmer, but he is glad that it is a modern farmer that he 
must be. He goes back to school, eager to prepare himself 
to enter the best agricultural college that he can find, in or- 
der that he may be ready for intelligent farming as soon as 
opportunity comes. 



CHAPTER V. 



SOIL. 

A LITTLE boat was sailing along the north shore of 
Massachusetts bay. It was a shallop belonging to the fish- 
ing hamlet of Cape Ann. In it were Gov. Roger Conant 
and a few of his friends. After a sail of a dozen miles the 
boat was turned to the westward and entered a harbor. On 

it went until it reached 
a point of land which 
separated two little 
rivers. Upon this 
peninsula, which the 
Indians called Naum- 
keag, Conant landed. 
He walked across from 
one stream to the 
other; he carefully 
examined the trees, the weeds, the grass, and the remains of 
an Indian cornfield. Then he sailed back to the cape. 

A few wrecks later Governor Conant and fourteen compan- 
ions moved from Cape Ann to Naumkeag, now Salem. For 
three years the hamlet on the cape had been struggling for 
life. The colonists had at last become disheartened and had 
abandoned the settlement. But what better fortune could 
they expect at Naumkeag? Conant's study of the little 
peninsula had taught him that here was a fertile soil from 
which he could raise food enough for the colonists. Cape 




COLONISTS IN A SHALLOP. 



FOOD — SOIL. 125 

Ann had not proved fertile. It was a " stern and rock-bound 
coast." The entire cape seemed to be one vast ledge of 
granite rock, and only here and there could grain and vege- 
tables be grown. 

The settlement of Salem was four years earlier than that 
of Boston, and but six years after the Pilgrims arrived in 
Plymouth. Thus early in the history of the colonies was it 
found necessary to seek fertile soils for settlements. As 
these grew and the number of the colonists increased, the 
need of more land and better soil became apparent. Ten 
years after Conant went to Naumkeag, the population of 
three entire towns near Boston moved, through woods, over 
hills and valleys, and across streams, to the fertile valley of 
the Connecticut River. Farms spread out in every direction 
until, before the middle of the eighteenth century, nearly all 
of southern New England was dotted with them. 

The French and Indian War came, and at its close the 
valley of the Ohio River was placed in the hands of the Eng- 
lish. Then followed the American Revolution, and the North- 
west Territory became a part of the United States. The New 
England farmers had become crowded by this time, and 
many were eager for more land. A new migration followed. 
Farmers from New England, New York, and Pennsylvania 
began to journey westward and to settle the Northwest Ter- 
ritory. Ohio soon had sufficient population to be made a 
State. Indiana and Illinois followed, then Michigan and 
Wisconsin. Meanwhile the United States purchased the 
great province of Louisiana, and Iowa, Minnesota, and Ne- 
braska were settled by the Eastern farmers and others who 
had come across the ocean from Europe. 

Never in the history of the world had there been such a 
rapid settlement of new lands. It has continued even up to 



126 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

the present time. A few years ago the new territory of Ok- 
lahoma was opened to farmers, and its growth has been re- 
markable. 

The principal reason for this rapid settlement of Western 
land may be found in the excellent character of the soil. 
For ages it had lain uncultivated, waiting for the coming of 
the white man. Unlike the rocky portions of New England, 
the ground seldom contains a large stone. Unlike the hills 
and valleys of the coast States, the interior territory is prairie 
land, level as far as the eye can see. Here the gang plows 
can be run ; here the mowing machines and the mammoth 
harvesters can be used to great advantage. 

Thus grew the northern part of the United States. In 
the South the westward movement was not so rapid. The 
conditions of agriculture were different. The climate of 
South Carolina was unlike that of Massachusetts ; the cold of 
New York was unknown in Georgia. In New England small 
farms were the rule ; on these the work was done by the 
owner, with the aid of his sons or perhaps a hired man or 
two. In Virginia large plantations were common ; here the 
proprietor lived at his ease and the land was cultivated by 
slaves. In Connecticut the crops raised were used for the 
most part by the farmer's family or sold in the immediate 
neighborhood. In North Carolina the products of the planta- 
tions were exported in great quantities. 

In time, however, these Southern people became dissatis- 
fied with their early territory, as their Northern brothers had 
been, and gradually new States were formed to the west- 
ward. Kentucky and Tennessee were followed by Louisiana; 
Alabama and Mississippi were formed on one side of the great 
river, but a few years before Missouri and Arkansas were on 
the other. State after State was admitted to the Union as 



FOOD — SOIL. 12/ 

soon as a sufficient number of people had flocked into them^ 
and the number of Territories was steadily diminishing. 

At the farther end of the continent, the Oregon country, 
saved to us by the heroism of Dr. Marcus Whitman, added a 
large territory of extremely fertile soil. South of Oregon 
the great State of California was added to the Union, as a 
result of Marshall's discovery of gold at Sutter's Fort. Yet 
California to-day is a State for the farmer as well as the 
miner. Thus finally, the Atlantic coast, the region of the 
Great Lakes, the Ohio valley, the Gulf States, the valley of 
the "Father of Waters," and the Pacific slope — in fact, 
almost all sections of the United States — were well peopled 
by farmers, drawing from the rich virgin soil immense crops 
of food, more than sufficient for our own people. 

But we were not satisfied. In the very heart of the 
country, between Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas on the 
east, and California, Oregon, and Washington on the west, 
lay a great region which had no attractions for the farmer. 
Let him properly plow and cultivate the soil, let him add to 
it soil-food or fertilizers as much as he pleases, let the spring 
and the summer come, and let the hot sun add its part to 
change the seed into growing grain — in spite of all the farm- 
er's efforts no crop could be obtained. The grain dried up 
almost as soon as planted. There was no water. For month 
after month no rain fell upon this region. It was called the 
''Great American Desert." 

The first attempt to make this desert soil yield a suitable 
return for the labor of the farmer was made at Salt Lake 
City. Fift}^ years ago a band of earnest men braved cold 
and famine, and the even more deadly Indians, crossed the 
great region west of the Mississippi River, and made a settle- 
ment in the very midst of the desert country. To-day the 



128 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 






desert of Utah blooms like a garden ; the soil is fertile and 
yields large returns to the industrious inhabitants. What 
has made the change? Nothing but water. 

If the heavens refuse to send rain to moisten the parched 
ground, cannot the needed water be obtained in some other 
^^■.^j> ^ way? The pioneer settlers 

of Salt Lake led the way in 
teaching mankind that the 
ground may be irrigated by 
human means. Water may 
be carried to the fields 
where, flowing along the 
surface of the ground, it 
soaks in until it reaches the 
roots of the crops. The 
w^ater may be pumped out 
of the ground or it may be 
brought from the moun- 
tains in trenches or pipes. 
This method of helping na- 
ture by providing water 
where rain is scarce is 
called irrigation. 

In the same way many 
other sections of the great 
West have been reclaimed. 
Southern California, for- 
merly fit only for the raising of vast herds of cattle, is now 
the great orchard of the country. Large portions of New 
Mexico and Arizona now add to the general stock of food. 
Irrigation bids fair to be of vast benefit to the country as, lit- 
tle by little, barren lands are rendered fertile. 




AN IRRIGATING TRENCH. 



FOOD — SOIL. 



129 



At present the principal grain region of our country is the 
great Northwest, the twelve States west of Pennsylvania. 
The principal grain is corn, and two-thirds of the entire crop 
of this country is grown in the seven States of Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. The banner 
corn State is Iowa. 

The wheat crop is more valuable to the world than the corn. 
The United States raises one-quarter of all the wheat grown 
in the world, and the great Northwest produces two-thirds 
of that. Wheat can be profitably raised in a cooler climate 
than is suitable for corn ; therefore the five Northern States 
Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota 
add their quota to the wheat grown in the seven great corn 
States. Minnesota leads in the production of wheat. Not 

all the wheat comes 
from this region, how- 
ever, for two Pacific 




>^-V:<- 



^s^^^^^-^ 



A RICE FIELD. 



States, California and Oregon, produce one-eighth of the entire 
crop of our country, and Pennsylvania gives a large share. 

Iowa leads in the production of oats as well as of corn ; 
more than two-thirds of the oat crop comes from the North- 



I30 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

west. New York and Pennsylvania add their quota, about 
one-eighth of the total crop. The Northwest thus provides 
two-thirds of the grain, on much less than one-half of the 
cultivated land of the United States. 

Though grain is the great agricultural product, it is not 
the only crop that we raise in large quantities. Ten of the 
Southern States furnish each year more than sixty thousand 
tons of rice, a large portion of which comes from Louisiana 
and South Carolina. 

The United States is just beginning to take rank as a sugar- 
producing country. We now raise about one-eighth of the 
sugar that w^e use each year. At present most of the sugar 
comes from sugar cane, which is grown mainly in Louisiana; 
but the central States and California have recently begun the 
manufacture of sugar from beets, and beet-growing is becom- 
ing an important industry. The recent annexation of islands 
in the West Indies and the Pacific Ocean greatly increases our 
sugar production. 

Two other crops which are obtained from the soil must 
not be forgotten, although they are neither of them foods. 
The Gulf States furnish nine-elevenths of all the cotton 
raised in the world, and the States north of them produce a 
large portion of the world's tobacco. Kentucky leads in the 
production of the latter staple, raising each year nearly one- 
half of the tobacco grown in the United States. 

Grain, cotton, tobacco, rice, and sugar are the main prod- 
ucts of the soil in the United States. Each of these is pro- 
duced in its own special region, depending upon the character 
of the soil aiid the climate. The value of our agricultural 
exports is rapidly increasing, and the world is looking more 
and more to the United States to furnish a large part of the 
food necessary for all mankind. 



CHAPTER VI. 



A MODERN DINNER. 

George Baxter and his wife returned to New York, after 
a winter spent in California just a week before Mrs. Baxter's 
sister and her husband were preparing to start for a second 
summer in Europe. A third sister, Alice Smith, decided to 

give the travelers a 

7'^'!]l!'I'/iillllll''i'llHill small dinner, to 
which only the 
family should be in- 
vited, 

"When the even- 
ing arrived, eleven 
members of the At- 
wood familygathered 
about the table in 
Mr. Smith's capa- 
cious dining room, 
the seat of honor 
being given to the 
mother, Mrs. Atwood. Besides the three married couples, 
Frank and Alice Smith, Albert and Mary Fremont, and George 
and Lucy Baxter, there were the four unmarried children. 
James, the oldest son, was a banker in the city; Walter, 
next younger than Lucy, was a student fitting for Columbia 
University; Fred and Mabel were still classed as school 
children. 




A DINNER PARTY. 



132 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

After the trim waiter had brought on the soup, the mo- 
ment's quiet was broken by George Baxter, who said to the 
hostess: " How good to get back to New York once more, if 
only to get a soup that one can eat without burning the 
mouth w^ith the sharp condiments. You have no seasoning 
at all in the soup, have you, Alice? " 

"Oh, yes," replied the hostess, "it is a very simple soup, 
but there is the usual pepper and salt. What have you been 
in the habit of having? " 

" I am sure that I could tell what we did not have in some 
of our Mexican soups much easier than what we did have. I 
should think that there must have been both kinds of pepper, 
ginger, garlic, mustard, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, 
and everything else. I cannot understand why people living 
in the tropics want to season their food with such hot stuff." 

" What do you mean by two kinds of pepper, brother 
George?" asked Mabel. 

"Cayenne pepper and black pepper," was the reply. 

"Oh, 3^es, I know! " said Fred. "Cayenne pepper comes 
from Cayenne in French Guiana. But where do we get black 
pepper? " 

" Nearly all of it comes from Sumatra," said Mary. " Do 
you know where Sumatra is, Mabel? " 

" Sumatra is one of the large islands south and southeast 
of Asia, which are called the East Indies," replied the school- 
girl. 

The conversation had now become general, and Mr. Smith 
called attention to the distance that these condiments travel 
in reaching us. 

" Sumatra is almost exactly on the opposite side of the 
earth from us," said he. " Fred, how would the black pepper 
be brought to New York from Sumatra? " 



FOOD — A MODERN DINNER. I 33 

" Across the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, through the 
Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea, I suppose. But I do 
not know whether it would then come straight across the 
Atlantic Ocean, or first go to England." 

"Usually," said Mr. Smith, "it would go to England 
first." 

"Alice," broke in Mabel, "what else is in the soup beside 
pepper? Oh, I know, salt. Is salt also brought half-way 
round the world? " 

"I know where salt comes from," said Fred; "up State. 
It is dugout of the ground near Syracuse." 

" That is right, Fred," said James. " But New York State 
does not supply all the salt used in this country. For years 
many ships and barks have come yearly into Gloucester har- 
bor from Sicily, bringing salt for the fishing-schooners. 
Steamers even are being used to bring salt from the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, in order that the Gloucester fishermen may send 
salt fish all over our country." 

"We must not forget," said Mrs. Smith, "that there is 
rice in our soup also. That comes from South Carolina." 

Just then the plates were removed and the fish was 
brought on. 

"This is a rarity," said the hostess. "Can you tell us 
what it is, James? " 

" I think so. It is halibut, is it not? " 

"Why do you call it a rarity? " asked Mary. 

"This halibut came from the Grand Banks," said Mrs. 
Smith. " I do not understand how they get it here so fresh." 
' James, who seemed to be quite familiar with the Gloucester 
fisheries, said: "The fishermen brought their load of halibut 
to the Gloucester wharves last night and immediately loaded 
it upon the Boston steamer. Three o'clock in the morning 



134 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



was its time for sailing, and at six it was being unloaded in 
Boston. The six-hour trains brought some of it to New 
York in time for our dinner." 

" Steamers and railroad trains seem necessary for our din- 
ner, do they not? " said Albert. *' But this fish sauce contains 

only articles from 
nearer home, I am 
sure." 

" Do not be too 
certain of that," said 
Mr. Smith. "Alice, 
what is there in this 
sauce? " 

" F'irst, there are 
eggs." 

"Those came 
from our Long Island 
farm, of course, " said 
her husband. 

" Then there is 
olive oil." 

"That comes 
from Italy," said Mr. Smith. "That is not a home product. 
The olives that you are eating are, of course, from Italy 
also." 

" I doubt that," said George. " I was just about to remark 
that these olives had come from California. I can easily de- 
tect the taste." 

"Yes," the hostess added. "These olives I bought just 
to see if George and Lucy would notice that they were not 
our usual queen olives. They are said to have come from 
Pomona." 




LOADING FISH AT GLOUCESTER. 



FOOD — A MODERN DINNER. 1 35 

"That is a great olive center," said George. 

"What else is there in the sauce, Alice?" asked her 
husband. 

" Pepper and salt, vinegar " 

" Cider vinegar, I suppose," broke in Mrs. Baxter. " How 
much nicer apple vinegar is than grape vinegar! Most of the 
vinegar that we had in California was made from wine. That 
State is becoming a great grape-producing region. But do 
you know, Frank, where the apples were grown? " 

"No," said Mr. Smith, "but probably they were raised 
either in Vermont or New Hampshire. Last year the New 
York apple orchards gave but a poor yield, while those of 
New England did much better. Probably this season will 
prove an off year for Vermont apples, but we shall have all 
that we can use in our own State." 

"A little lemon ends the list," said the hostess. 

"Lemons from Sicily, I suppose," remarked Mr. Baxter. 
" Have you tried the California lemons yet? " 

"Yes," said Mr. Smith. "We can sometimes get very 
fine lemons from California, but not always. If the growers 
of lemons were more particular about the quality of the fruit 
that they send out, there would be a better trade in California 
lemons." 

While this conversation was going on, the fish was re- 
moved and a roast of beef was placed on the table, and with 
it the vegetables. The different members of the family had 
become quite interested in the discussion by this time, and it 
was continued as a matter of course. 

"This is a good piece of beef," remarked James Atwood. 
" What are we going to do for meat when the natural increase 
in the amount of land devoted to cultivation uses up all the 
grazing regions? " 



136 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



"You need not fret about that," said Mr. Baxter; "that 
will not come in your day. You ought to take a trip through 
Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, through Wyoming and 
Montana, or other sections of the Rocky Mountain region, 
and you would not fear for our cattle-raising interests." 

"Here, again, the railroads are important," said Mr. Fre- 
mont. " What numbers of long freight trains daily come 

east, loaded with cattle for 

New York and Boston, 
and even for Great Britain 
and the Continent. The 
European consumption of 
our cattle is of great and 
rapidly growing impor- 
tance." 

"These new potatoes 
came from the Bermu- 
das," remarked the host. 

" And the peas from 
Maryland, " added the 
hostess. " Do you not 

think that these are remarkably fresh after having been 
brought so far? " 

"How about the lettuce?" asked James. "That must 
have come from some greenhouse." 

"Without doubt, though I did not inquire," replied ^Irs. 
Smith. 

Not willing to leave anything out of the conversation, 
Mabel here inquired about the macaroni and tomatoes. 

"The macaroni comes from Italy," replied her sister 
Mary. " Much of it is shipped from Genoa, the city which 
claims to have been the birthplace of Columbus. You would 




A CATTLE TRAIN. 



FOOD — A MODERN DINNER. 13/ 

find it interesting, Mabel, to read about the production and 
preparation of macaroni." 

"The tomatoes were canned on our farm last autumn," 
said Mrs. Smith. " We think them much superior to any 
that we can buy." 

After this the conversation turned upon the bread. There 
were two kinds, white and brown. One of the ladies remarked 
that she never ate white bread ; bread from whole wheat flour 
was so much more wholesome. Another said that graham 
bread was good enough for her. They talked about the 
white flour, made in Minneapolis, from Dakota wheat. 
They spoke of the Indian meal made from corn grown in 
Iowa. They wondered why so little rye was used in this 
country, since it is the staple grain in Russia. They then 
inquired concerning the other substances used in making the 
two kinds of bread. 

"Where does the butter come from?" asked Mrs. Fre- 
mont. 

" This particular box is marked from Delaware County, 
New York," replied the hostess. "Most of the creameries 
that send butter to New York City are located at some distance 
from the railroads. The farms nearer the railroads send all 
their milk to the city. But the farmers that are too remote 
profitably to send in the milk make the cream into butter 
and cheese. They then feed the buttermilk to the pigs." 

" That is a new thought to me, " said James. " So it seems 
that some products are made only where there are no rail- 
roads." 

" Or where there is no great city within a few hundred 
miles," added Walter. 

"I suppose there is molasses in this brown bread," said 
Lucy Baxter. 



138 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

"Molasses comes from Porto Rico," said Mabel, who was 
studying the West Indies just at this time in her geography 
lessons at school. 

"Some of it," said her oldest sister. "But most of the 
sugar comes from Cuba." 

" But not all," said James. " This sugar has been travel- 
ing for nearly two weeks to reach New York. First a sea 
voyage of more than two thousand miles, and then a railroad 
journey of more than three thousand miles, and yet the sec- 
tion where it grew is a part of the United States." 

"It must have come from Honolulu then," said Walter. 
" I wonder whether the Sandwich Islands, being now a part 
of the United States, will interfere with the raising of sugar- 
cane in our Southern States? " 

"Very little probably, but now that the United States 
possesses Hawaii and Porto Rico, it will scarcely be necessary 
for us to import any sugar and molasses," said Fred. 

When the dessert and fruit were brought on, new subjects 
for conversation were found. 

"What do you call this pudding, Alice? " asked her hus- 
band. 

"It is a peach-tapioca pudding," was the reply. "The 
peaches are from Delaware; canned, of course." 

"Here, again, the West Indies are represented," said 
James; "the tapioca came from Hayti." 

"And the East Indies also," added Walter, "for I taste 
nutmeg, which comes from the Molucca Islands. These 
islands furnish such an amount of spice that they are com- 
monly called the Spice Islands." 

The discussion of foods continued throughout the dinner. 
The oranges, almost the last of the season, had been brought 
from California. Florida oranges were scarce that year. The 



FOOD — A MODERN DINNER. 



139 



bananas were from Mexico and almost a luxury. The war 
with Spain had destroyed trade with Cuba, from which island 
the great bulk of bananas had usually come. 

Among the nuts were almonds that had been imported 
from Italy, filberts that had been sent across the ocean from 




DRYING COFFEE IN JAVA. 



England, and walnuts that had come from California. Fi- 
nally the coffee was from the island of Java. 

Before the dinner party broke up, Mv. Smith reviewed 
the facts which had been learned in the conversation. He 
especially called attention to the small number of articles 
that are not profitably raised in the United States. 

" We should miss our coffee very much," he said, " if our 
country were blockaded at any time. The loss of the banana 
would be the loss of a luxury. Had we no macaroni or 
tapioca we should still have enough to eat. Perhaps our 
taste would become more natural were we deprived of pep- 



I40 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

per. No other of the foods on this table should we be en- 
tirely deprived of, even were we separated wholly from the 
rest of the world. California could furnish us with olives, 
lemons, and almonds, as well as Italy does. We need not 
go to England for filberts, and even if we had not of late 
obtained new colonies, we could produce in time all the sugar 
we needed to supply the entire country. No other nation in 
the world is so well prepared to furnish its own food." 




ELI WHITNEY. 



SECTION IV.-CLOTHING. 



^U'^'^ 




o 

J 

3 
o 
< 



■*Ma.iii 1,1 I ■ lyMiy 



SECTION IV.— CLOTHING. 



CHAPTER I. 
COLONIAL CONDITIONS. 

You all know that the United States of America was 
formed out of thirteen English colonies scattered along the 
Atlantic coast. Virginia was the first of these colonies to 
be founded, dating from 1607. Massachusetts was settled in 
1620, New York in 1623, and so on until the last of the thir- 
teen, Georgia, was established in 1733. From the time of 
these settlements until the Declaration of Independence in 
1776, these colonies were subject to Great Britain and under 
her rule and control. The independence of these American 
colonies was a great loss to the British government, but it 
created a new nation of the same race which, together with 
the mother country, to-day holds the destiny of the world in 
its hands. 

Great Britain for centuries has been largely a manufac- 
turing country. It was the policy of the British government 
to control so far as possible manufactures and commerce for 
all her provinces and colonies. Hence during our colonial 
period the home government took every possible measure 
to prevent the introduction of manufactures into the colo- 
nies. We were dependent upon the mother country for cot- 
ton and woolen goods, cutlery, iron ware, and, indeed, almost 
everything that could be profitably manufactured in England 
and shipped to this country. Even after we had secured our 



144 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

independence, the strictest care was taken by the officials of 
England that drawings and models of machinery should not 
be brought to America. 

As late as 1816 an American manufacturer of cotton cloth 
visited England. Although he carried letters of introduc- 
tion which caused him to be treated with great courtesy and 
attention, he was refused permission to enter any of the cot- 
ton mills. The manufacturers suspected his purpose, which 
was to learn the construction of the " double speeder." Nev- 
ertheless he persisted, and one day, without permission and 
in spite of the sign "Positively no Admittance," he entered 
the carding-room, accompanied by a skilled mechanic. They 
proceeded as rapidly as possible to examine the machine, 
which was in full operation, but were soon ordered out by 
the overseer. They had, however, seen enough of its con- 
struction to enable them to make one. 

After their return to this country they made a machine and 
set it up in the gentleman's cotton mill in the State of New 
York. The news of its successful operation reached England 
and aroused a jealous feeling among manufacturers. In their 
anger they planned a wicked scheme to destroy the life of 
the American manufacturer. A box containing an " infernal 
machine " was sent as freight on a packet ship bound for 
New York. Fortunately, when the crew was discharging 
the cargo, the box slipped from the car hook and fell with 
a crash upon the wharf. This caused it to explode, but with- 
out injury to any one. 

In colonial times the condition of society was such as to 
make it almost impossible for the people to engage to any 
great extent in manufactures. The country was new and 
the principal business must be agriculture. After comfort- 
able shelter for the families had been provided, every exer- 



CLOTHING — COLONIAL CONDITIONS. 



145 



tion must be put forth to secure food. Cloth could only be 
obtained from the mother country. Cotton and linen cloth 
were imported for shirts and sheets, woolen goods for clothing, 
a few silks for wedding dresses now and then, and leather for 
the shoes of all the people. 







TAILOR AND COBBLER. 



the shoes needed for the 



In the early times the 
tailor, with his goose and 
his shears, plied his trade 
from house to house, stay- 
ing with each family long 
enough to make up the 
clothes necessary for the 
season. In like manner - 
the shoemaker traveled 
about the country, with his 
kit upon his back, stopping 
with each household to make 
father, mother, and children. 

These were the pioneer days, but, before we became a 
nation, the houses of the people had greatly improved in 
style of architecture and in comfort. Considerable wealth 
had been secured by many, and but little poverty was found 
anywhere. The mechanic arts were beginning to improve, 
and manufacturing, after a long and tedious waiting, was 
gradually making progress. At an early date sawmills had 
been established upon the streams, using the water as motive 
power. Gristmills had sprung up for grinding the grain 
raised by every farmer. The spinning wheel and the hand 
loom had found their place slowly but steadily in all parts of 
the country. 

It is difficult to comprehend the great differences between 
the industries of those early days and the methods of doing 



10 



146 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



business among us to-day. Now almost everything seems to 
be done by machinery, and the division of labor has been 
carried to such an extent that each laborer seems only an as- 
sistant to a machine. "You press the button, the machine 
does the rest." 

In the early days of our country, it was customary for the 
different members of a family to do almost everything that 
the necessities or comfort of the household required. Every- 
where the farmer raised sheep, sheared them, carded the 
wool, spun it and wove it, all this being done upon the home 
farm. A well-to-do farmer would produce all the woolen 
cloth needed for clothing for himself and his family. 

The sheep grazed upon the hills and their 
wool was clipped in the spring of the year. 
This wool was scoured, carded, spun by the 
family in the farmhouse, and then woven 
into cloth for the winter's wear. All this was 
done within the walls of the house, and the 
cloth was made up into 
clothing for the different 
members of the family 
by the itinerant tailor. 
What a contrast from the 
present system, which 
raises wool upon our 
Western hills and prai- 
ries, makes it into cloth 
in the large factories, and 
fashions it into trousers, 
vests, and coats in the 
great wholesale clothing 
establishments. 




SPINNING WHEEL. 



CLOTHING — COLONIAL CONDITIONS. 



147 



In some sections of the country the farmers raised flax, 
and from it made the purest white linen cloth. The writer 
of this chapter has in his possession a beautiful piece of white 
linen, woven upon the farm 
where he was born, from 
thread which was spun from 
flax raised upon the same 
farm. The flax wheel and 
the loom were also made by 
the father of the family. 

If you could look into that 
old kitchen what a sight you 
would see ! How quaint it 
would appear to each one of 
you ! The kitchen makes an 
ell to the main house. This 

ell was an old house, built more than a century and a half 
ago, and moved up to the new house for a kitchen. In one 
corner stands the large spinning wheel ; near it is the smaller 
flax wheel ; in another corner stands the great wooden loom 
with its huge beam for the warp and its shuttle which must be 
thrown back and forth by hand. No carpet, not even an oil- 
cloth, is upon the floor, which is covered with pure white 
sand. 

It would seem very strange to us if we were obliged to 
live surrounded by these primitive conditions. How much 
stranger would it appear to those who lived at that day if 
they could witness the improvements of our time ! 




AN OLD-FASHIONED LOOM. 



CHAPTER II. 
THE COTTON GIN. 

In the quiet times that followed the French and Indian 
War, two years after the Treaty of 1763, Eli Whitney was 
born in Worcester County in Massachusetts. During the 
Revolutionary War he was busy making nails by hand, the 
only way in which nails were made in those days. He earned 
money enough by this industry and by teaching school to pay 
his way through college. But it was a slow process, and he 
was nearly twenty-seven years of age when he was gradu- 
ated at Yale. Immediately upon his graduation he went to 
Georgia, — a long distance from home in those days, — having 
made an engagement to become a private tutor in a wealthy 
family of that State. On his arrival he found that the man 
who had engaged his services, unmindful of the contract, had 
filled the position with another tutor. 

The widow of the famous Gen. Nathaniel Greene had a 
beautiful home at Mulberry Grove, on the Savannah River. 
Mrs. Greene invited young Whitney to make her house his 
home while he studied law. She soon perceived that he had 
great inventive genius. He devised several articles of con- 
venience which Mrs. Greene much appreciated. 

At that time the entire cotton crop of this country might 
have been produced upon a single field of two hundred acres. 
Cotton then commanded a very high price, because of the 
labor of separating the cotton fibre from the seed. The cot- 
ton clung to the seed with such tenacity that one man could 



CLOTHING — THE COTTON GIN. 



149 



separate the wSeed from only four or five pounds of cotton in 
a day. At that rate it would take him three months to make 
up a bale of clear cotton. Already inventions in machinery 

for the making of cotton cloth 
had made the production of 
cotton a necessity. Some 
means must be provided for 
a more rapid separation of 
cotton from the seed in or- 
der to make manufacturing 
profitable. 

One day, one of Mrs. 
Greene's friends was regret- 
ting, in conversation with 
her, that there could be no 
profit in the cultivation of 
cotton. Mrs. Greene had 
great faith in the inventive 
powers of j^oung Whitney, 
and she suggested that he be 
asked to make a machine 
which would separate the 
seed skillfully and rapidly, 
"for," said she, "Eli Whit- 
ney can make anything." 
When the workmen in the deep mines of England needed 
a safety lamp to shield them from the explosions of the damp, 
they applied to the great chemist, Sir Humphrey Davy, and 
he invented one. So, these cotton raisers appealed to Mr. 
Whitney to invent for them a cotton engine or "gin." He 
knew nothing about either raw cotton or cotton seed. Could 
he be expected to invent a machine that would separate the 




A COTTON FIELD. 



ISO 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



cotton seed which he had never seen from the raw cotton 
which also he had never seen? But Whitney was an in- 
ventor. Trifles must not stand in his way. He secured 
samples of the cotton and the seed ; even this was not an 
easy thing to do, for it was not the right season of the year. 

He began to work out his idea of the cotton gin, but met 
with many obstacles. There were no wire manufactories in 
the South and he could not obtain wire even in Savannah. 
Therefore he had to make his wire himself. Still further, 
he was obliged to manufacture his own iron tools. Step by 
step he overcame all obstacles, 
until he had a machine that he 
thought would answer the pur- 
pose. 

Accordingly, one day, he en- 
tered the room where Mrs. 
-Greene Avas conversing with 
friends and exclaimed, " The 
victory is mine ! " All the guests, 
as well as the hostess, went with 
the inventor to examine the ma- 
chine. He set the model in 
motion. It consisted of a cylin- 
der four feet in length and five • 
inches in diameter. Upon this 
was a series of circular saws half 

an inch apart and projecting two inches above the surface of 
the revolving cylinder. The saws passed through narrow 
slits between bars; these bars might be called the ribs of 
the hopper. 

At once the saw teeth caught the cotton which had been 
placed in the hopper and carried it over between the bars. 




A COTTON POD. 



CLOTHING — THE COTTIN GIN. 



151 




THE COTTON GIN. 



The seed was left behind, as it was too large to pass through. 
The saws revolved smoothly and the cotton was thoroughly 
separated from the seed. But after a few minutes the saws 
became clogged with the cotton and the wheels stopped. Poor 
Whitney was in despair. Victory was not yet his. 

Mrs. Greene came to the rescue. Her housewifely in- 
stincts saw the difficulty at once and the remedy as well. 

"Here's what you 



want! " she e x - 

claimed. She took a 

clothes brush hanging 

near by and held it 

firmly against the 

teeth of the saws. 

The cylinder began 

again to revolve, for 

the saws were quickly cleaned of the lint, which no longer 

clogged the teeth. " Madam," said the grateful AVhitney, 

"you have perfected my invention." 

The inventor added a second, larger cylinder, near the 
first. On this he placed a set of stiff brushes. As the two 
cylinders revolved, the brushes freed the saw teeth from the 
cotton and left it in the receiving pan. 

Thus the cotton gin was invented by the Yankee schoolmas- 
ter, Eli Whitney. Though improved in its workmanship and 
construction, it is still in use wherever cotton is raised. One 
man with a Whitney cotton gin can clean a thousand pounds 
of cotton in place of the five pounds formerly cleaned by hand. 
When a safety lamp was needed, Davy invented it. 
When faster water travel was demanded, Fulton constructed 
the steamboat. When the world needed vast wheat fields, 
McCormick devised his reaper. When the time had come 



152 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

for the telegraph, Morse studied it out. In the fullness of 
time, Bell, Edison, and others invented the telephone. When 
a cotton gin was needed, Eli Whitney made it. Here again 
the law holds that "necessity is the mother of invention." 

When a great invention is made, everybody wants the 
benefit of it, and people seem to think that the inventor " has 
no rights which they are bound to respect." W'hitney se- 
cured a patent upon his machine, but, unmindful of that, a 
great m^any persons began to make cotton gins. He was im- 
mediately involved in numerous legal contests. Before he 
secured a single verdict in his favor he had sixty lawsuits 
pending. After many delays he finally secured the payment 
of $50,000 which the Legislature of South Carolina had voted 
him. North Carolina allowed him a percentage on all cotton 
gins used in that State for five years. Tennessee promised 
to do the same, but did not keep her promise. 

^Ir. Whitney struggled along, year after year, until he 
was convinced that he should never receive a just return for 
his invention. Seeing no way to gain a competence from the 
cotton gin he determined to continue the contest no longer, 
removed to New Haven and turned his attention to the mak- 
ing of firearms. Here he eventually gained a fortune. He 
made such improvements in the manufacture of firearms as 
to lay his country under permanent obligation to him for 
greatly increasing the means of national defense. 

Robert Fulton once said: " Arkwright, Watt, and Whit- 
ney were the three men that did the most for mankind of 
any of their contemporaries." Macaulay said : " What Peter 
the Great did to make Russia dominant, Eli Whitney's in- 
vention of the cotton gin has more than equaled in its relation 
to the power and progress of the United States." 



CHAPTER III. 
COTTON. 

Almost exactly in the center of England is the Count}^ 
of Derby. A few miles north of the city of Derby, on a 
small river called Derwent, a branch of the Trent, is the lit- 
tle town of Belper. This town was noted for its early manu- 
facture of cotton and silk goods. Here, about the time of 
the American Revolution, Richard Arkwright and Jedediah 
Strutt were successfully engaged in cotton spinning. 

Tn this town, in 1763, was born Samuel Slater. As the 
lad grew up, his father, a well-to-do farmer, sent him to 
school where he received the advantages of a good English 
education. His school days, however, ended when he was 
fourteen years of age. He was greatly interested in machin- 
ery. The hum of the spinning frame was music to his ears. 
Therefore, he was apprenticed to Mr. Strutt to learn the busi- 
ness of cotton spinning, and gained a thorough mastery of 
the process of carding and spinning cotton, and even while 
an apprentice he made many improvements in machinery. 

At the close of the Revolutionary War, the Constitution 
of the United States was adopted and George Washington 
became President. We have already seen that England did 
not permit her American colonies to engage to any great 
extent in manufacturing. But now, the very first Congress 
under Washington passed an act to en<:ourage manufactures, 
and one or two of the States offered bounties for the intro- 
duction of cotton machinery. 



154 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

Young Slater, now about twenty-one years of age, deter- 
mined to emigrate to America. Since the laws of England 
did not permit him to take drawings or models with him, he 
had to trust entirely to his memory to construct new ma- 
chinery when he should arrive in this country. He landed 
in New York in November, 1789, and soon after wrote to 
Moses Brown, a wealthy merchant of Providence, Rhode 
Island, telling him what he could do and asking his help. 
Mr. Brown immediately replied : " If thou canst do this 
thing, I invite thee to come to Rhode Island and have the 
credit of introducing cotton manufactures into America." 

So it happened that on the 21st of December, 1790, Sam- 
uel Slater, representing the business firm of " Almy, Brown 
and Slater," set up at Pawtucket three eighteen-inch carding 
machines, with the necessary drawing heads, roving cases, 
winders, and spinning frames, with seventy-two spindles. 
Here, in an old fulling mill, and by water power, w^as started 
machinery for the making of cotton yarn. Mr. Slater had 
been obliged to prepare all the plans of this machinery, and 
either to construct it with his own hands or to teach others 
how to do it. From the first the enterprise was successful. 
An excellent quality of yarn was manufactured, quite equal to 
the best quality then made in England. No attempts were 
made to use water power in weaving the yarn into cloth. 
This was still done by hand looms in the farmhouses of the 
country. A second cotton factory was started in the year 
1800, and within ten years from that date there were many 
of them in different parts of the land. 

When Mr. Slater came to America, he left at his father's 
house in Belper a little brother. In 1805 this brother, now 
grown to manhood, came to America, and went to Pawtucket 
to find his brother Samuel. Here he found Mr. Wilkinson, 



CLOTHING — COTTON. I55 

a brother-in-law of Mr. Slater. Mr. Wilkinson took him to 
his brother's house and said: "I have brought one of your 
countrymen to see you; can you find anything for him to 
do? " Mr. Slater asked from what part of England he came. 

He replied : " Derbyshire." 

" What part of Derbyshire? " said Mr. Slater. 

"I came from the town of Belper," said John. 

" Belper, the town of Belper? Well, that is where I came 
from. What may I call your name? " 

"John Slater." 

The boy had changed so much that his older brother did 
not know him. The interview was a delightful one to both; 
it was like the meeting of Joseph and Benjamin. Questions 
and answers flew rapidly. 

"Is my mother yet alive? How are my brothers and sis- 
ters? How is my old master, Mr. Strutt? Is the old school- 
master Jackson living? " 

The next year the two brothers built a cotton mill in 
Smithfield, Rhode Island, and in 1808 a large stone mill was 
erected at Blackstone, Massachusetts. 

So the business continued to increase. The power loom 
was invented, and soon the manufacture of cotton cloth be- 
came one of the leading interests of New England. The mills 
of Lowell became famous. Manchester, in New Hamp- 
shire, Lawrence and Fall River, in Massachusetts, were soon 
dotted with great mills turning out cloth of all varieties by 
the million yards. The falls upon the rivers of New Eng- 
land were utilized, by means of the water wheel, to furnish 
power for moving all the machinery used in the making of 
cotton goods. The song of the picker, the hum of the spin- 
ning frame, and the whack, whack of the loom are now 
heard in a thousand mills in various parts of our country. 



156 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS, 



Mr. Slater was visited at one time by Andrew Jackson 
while he was President. It is related that the following- 
conversation took place between them : 

" I understand," said the President, " that you have taught 
us how to spin so as to rival Great Britain and that it is you 
who have set all these thousands of spindles at work, which 
I have been so delighted to see, and which are making so 
many people happy by giving them employment." 

"Yes sir," said Mr. Slater,"! suppose that I gave out the 
Psalm, and they have been singing the tune ever since." 

Samuel Slater died in 1835, leaving a large fortune to his 
family. John Slater died a few years after the death of his 
brother. It was his son, John F. Slater, who in 1882 placed 
$1,000,000 in the hands of aboard of trustees, the interest 

of which was to be 
used for the educa- 
tion of the freedmen 
of the South and their 
descendants. The 
great Rhode Island 
orator, Tristam Bur- 
gess, said in Congress 
on one occasion : " If 
manufacturing estab- 
lishments are a bene- 
fit and a blessinof to 
the Union, the name 
of Slater must ever 
be held in grateful 
remembrance by the American people." 

It would be next to impossible to give any adequate ac- 
count of the improvements which have been made m Amer- 




PRESIDENT JACKSON AND MR. SLATER. 



CLOTHING — COTTON. 



157 



lean machinery for the manufacture of cotton cloth. Begin- 
ning with the cotton gin and the introduction of the carding 
machine and 
the spinning 
frame by Sla- 
ter, we should 
have to record 
the great suc- 
cess of the 
double speed- 
er, the mod- 
ern drawing- 
frame, the 
Crompton and 
the W h i t i n 
looms, and es- 
pecially the 
ring traveler 
spinning frame and the self-operating cotton mule. 

In 1 79 1, 200,000 pounds of cotton were exported, very 
little being used in this country. In 1891, the cotton pro- 
duced in America reached more than 3,500,000,000 pounds. 
This cotton is now grown in the Southern States upon more 
than 20,000,000 acres of ground. The mills of America to- 
day are using more than 2,000,000 bales of cotton per year. 
In 1793, Samuel Slater started seventy-two spindles to spin 
cotton; in 1893, there were 15,000,000 spindles. To such 
great proportions has this industry grown from the small 
beginnings of Samuel Slater's bold attempt to bring over 
from England in his memory the machinery necessary to its 
manufacture. 




THE INTERIOR OF A MODERN COTTON MILL. 



CHAPTER IV. 
WOOL. 

As civilization has advanced, the clothing of man has im- 
proved. To-day a great variety of material is necessary to 
make up the proper wardrobe for civilized man. Our cloth- 
ing is nearly all fabricated — that is, manufactured from the 
raw material into what we call fabrics. We have cotton, 
woolen, silk, and linen fabrics. The two principal articles 
used for our clothing, however, are wool and cotton. Cotton 
and linen are more largely used in warm weather and in 
warm climates, while woolen has come into general use for 
wear in colder climates and in colder seasons. 

The making of woolen cloth is one of the oldest indus- 
tries. In the early ages the coarse wool of the sheep was 
spun into long threads, then woven and made into rude gar- 
ments for the clothing of man. The dyeing of these cloths, 
by which brilliant colors were produced, was one of the ear- 
liest of the fine arts. Many centuries ago the Egyptians, the 
Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans made shawls and robes 
of beautiful texture and brilliant colors. They also made 
mats, rugs, tent cloths, curtains, and tapestry hangings. 

During the last four hundred years steady progress has 
been made in the construction of woolen fabrics. Long ago 
England became famous for the manufacture of w^orsted 
goods, carpets, and broadcloths. Machinery for making 
woolen cloth was introduced into England during the latter 
half of the last century. The spinning jenny came into use 



CLOTHING — WOOL. I 59 

a little after 1750, and the power loom was invented near 
the close of the century. 

No machinery for making woolen cloth, except by hand 
spinning and hand weaving, was introduced into our country 
until about the year 1800. How do you suppose our fore- 
fathers and foremothers managed to make the cloth needed 
before the introduction of machinery and the building of 
factories? A single incident may explain how it was done. 

Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Nott was president of Dnion College, 
Schenectady, New York, for more than sixty years. He was 
born in Connecticut just before the American Revolution. 
His father was very poor, but a conscientious, godly man. 
He lived on a farm four miles from the village and the 
church. During the early boyhood of Eliphalet his father 
had no horse, and in bad weather, when the family could not 
walk to church, they were drawn over the rough and hilly 
roads of that long four miles by their only cow. Yet they 
were always at church. 

One winter, Mr. Nott's overcoat had become so shabby 
that Mrs. Nott told her husband it was not fit to be worn to 
church any longer. He had no money to buy a new one. 
Should he stay away from divine service? Not he! To this 
proposition neither he nor his wife would assent. Soon, 
however, the good woman devised a plan to free them from 
the difficulty. She suggested to her husband that they 
should shear their only " cosset " lamb, and that the fleece 
would furnish wool enough for a new overcoat. 

"What!'' said the old man, ''shear the cosset in Janu- 
ary? It will freeze." 

"Ah, no, it will not," said the wife, "I will see to that; 
the lamb shall not suffer." 

She sheared the cosset and then wrapped it in a blanket 



l6o AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

of burlaps, well sewed on, which kept it warm until its wool 
had grown again. This fleece Mrs. Nott carded, spun, and 
wove into cloth, which she cut and made into a garment for 
her husband, and he wore it to church on the following Sab- 
bath. 

The first attempt to manufacture woolen cloth other than 
by hand was made at Newburyport, Massachusetts, by two 
Englishmen, Arthur and John Scholfield. They had learned 
the business in England, and now put in operation the first 
carding machine for wool made in the United States. Upon 
this they made the first spinning rolls turned out by ma- 
chinery. The same year they built a factory, three stories 
high and one hundred feet long, in the Byfield district, at 
Newburyport. The two brothers carried on the factory for 
a company of gentlemen who were the stockholders. Arthur 
was overseer of the carding; John was in charge of the 
weaving room. 

This application of machinery to the making of woolen 
cloth created much interest in the country, and wool was 
brought from long distances. People visited the factory from 
far and near. These visitors became so numerous that an 
admission fee of ten cents was charged. During the first 
winter after the factory was opened sleighing parties came 
from all the neighboring towns. 

Some years ago an old lady, ninety years of age, wrote, in 
" Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian," that she had seen row 
after row of sleighs pass over Crane-neck Hill, enlivening 
the bright cold days by the joyous tones of their merry bells. 
She describes the impression made upon her own mind the 
first time she visited the factory : " Never shall I forget the 
awe with which I entered what then appeared the vast and 
imposing edifice. The large drums that carried the bands 



CLOTHING — WOOL. l6l 

on the lower floor, coupled with the novel noise and hum, 
increased this awe, but when I reached the second floor 
where picking, carding, spinning, and weaving were in proc- 
ess, my amazement became complete. The machinery, with 
the exception of the looms, was driven by water power. The 
weaving was by hand. Most of the operatives were males, 
a few young girls being employed in splicing rolls." 

After this John Scholfield established a factory in Mont- 
ville, Connecticut. Subsequently Arthur Scholfield removed 
to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he passed the remainder 
of his life, and not only carried on the woolen manufacture 
himself, but also built carding machines and set them up for 
others to operate. Within the next twelve years several 
woolen factories had been built in Massachusetts, New 
Hampshire, Rhode Island, and New York. 

The new industry had become so firmly established that 
when President Madison was inaugurated, March 4th, 1809, 
it is said that he appeared in a complete suit of black broad- 
cloth of American manufacture. This was the first time that 
a President of the United States took the oath of office in a 
suit made entirely of home manufacture. 

From time to time the woolen industry has been protected 
by various tariff bills passed by Congress. This industry to- 
day is of gigantic proportions. The woolen factories in our 
country are now using about five hundred million pounds of 
wool per year. More than half of this is raised in our own 
country, and nearly all of the cloth produced is retained in 
the country for home consumption. 

Let us see now if we can understand how woolen cloth is 

made. The father of Dr. Nott had in those early days a 

single sheep. Some farmers would have half a dozen, others 

twenty-five or fifty. Now times are changed. We have but 
II 



1 62 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



few sheep in the older settled country along the Atlantic 
coast. Those who raise wool to-day are apt to make it their 
sole business, doing nothing else. Most of the sheep of this 
country are raised upon the great plains and in the great val- 
leys of the Western country. 

Many flocks of sheep, numbering from five hundred to 
several thousand, may be seen in Texas, New Mexico, Utah, 

and Wyoming. There 
are to-day in Texas more 
than three million 
sheep; about an equal 
number in Wyoming; 
nearly as many in New 
Mexico, Oregon, Califor- 
nia, and Ohio. We have 
in our country at the 
present time more than 
forty million sheep. 

Let us visit one of 
these sheep ranches. 
It is in the spring of the 
year. The warm weath- 
er has come. The sheep 
have had their thick fleeces to keep them warm through the 
cold winter. In the summer these thick, shaggy coats would 
be as burdensome to them as a winter overcoat would be to 
us. The ranchmen round up the flock, and taking them 
one by one, cut off with a huge pair of shears the long wool. 
The wool is sold to the dealers, and sent away to the 
market. It finds its way to the woolen mill. It is sorted, 
washed, and scoured. It is then carded. The cards 
straighten out the long fibres of wool so that they may be 




SHEEP-SHEARING. 



CLOTHING — WOOL. 163 

readily spun. The mule or the spinning jenny spins it into 
yarn, twisting this yarn like a rope or thread so that it will 
be strong and will hold together. A part of the yarn is then 
arranged upon a great beam for the warp. The warp is the 
threads that run lengthwise of the cloth. The rest of it is 
wound upon little bobbins to be put into shuttles. The 
shuttle is thrown back and forth across the warp, thus weav- 
ing in the filling. This is done by means of what is called 
a harness. This harness holds up the alternate threads of 
the w^arp and presses down the other threads, so that when 
the shuttle is thrown through it carries the thread of the 
filling " under and over " ; that is, under one-half of the w^arp 
threads and over the other half. 

After the cloth is w^oven, it is put through the fulling 
mill, which beats it up thick and firm. After this come the 
various processes of finishing: shearing the surface so as to 
leave it smooth ; brushing it so as to set the nap all one way 
and give it a smooth, even, glossy appearance. The quality 
of the cloth depends upon the quality of the wool used, the 
quality of the machinery which makes the cloth, and the skill 
of the workmen. A great deal of experience is necessary in 
making first-class goods. 

We are now using the very best machinery in the world 
in the manufacture of our w^oolen goods. Possibly in the 
making of broadcloth and a few varieties of the better class 
of goods we may not yet be quite up to the older manufac- 
tories of Europe, but in cassimeres, worsted goods, blankets 
and carpets we are already able to compete with the products 
of the Old World. Although the price of labor in European 
countries is less than in America, our workmen do more 
work in a day and our machinery is of such improved pat- 
terns that we are generally able to compete in price. 



CHAPTER V. 

LEATHER. 

In the colonial days, as we have seen, the traveling shoe- 
maker was abroad in the land. He was accustomed to travel 
through his section of the country with a kit of tools and bits 
of leather on his back. He was familiarly called "Crispin," 
from the patron saint of his craft, and ofttimes proved a 
" character " much appreciated by the farmers and their fami- 
lies. Sometimes these traveling mechanics were quiet, silent 
men, doing their work and going on intent only on obtaining 
their living; but sometimes they were jolly, social people, 
facetious, even witty. 

^'Good mornin', neighbor Heyday," said a Crispin to a 
farmer. " I hope you and the madam and the childers are 
all very well, the day." 

"Eh, purty fair. The woman is ailin' some. She wants 
buildin' up, buildin' up." 

"Well, well," said Crispin, "the Lord has laid His hand 
of blessing heavily upon ye, so He has that." 

"What is the meanin' of that speech? " said the farmer. 

" Eh, sorry is it for the joker when he has to explain his 
own joke. Hasn't He filled your quiver full of childers? and 
isn't that the greatest blessing the Almighty can bestow on 
man that is a sinner? " 

" But I have only six childers." 

"Yes, yes, I see, but the eldest counts less 3^ears than the 
clock tell hours ; and I wish ye had a dozen instead of half 



CLOTHING — LEATHER. " 1 65 

as many. Are ye givin' 'em all good healthy under- 
standin'? " 

'' Well, them that's old enough goes to school, if that's 
what you mean? " 

" Well, there it is again. A man has to interpret his own 
wit. I mean, have they all good soles on which to keep their 
bodies healthy? " 

"The good Lord gives 'em the souls and their parents 
are responsible only for the bodies." 

" Blunderin' again it is that I am. I mean are ye'r shoes 
all in a good, healthy condition, so that the brats will not 
take cold and be carried off by a stout, lung fever, that the 
doctors call newmony? " 

"Well, they've worn no shoes all summer except what 
the Lord gave 'em, and that's the skin of their feet." 

"Well, now, it's a full twelvemonth since I was around 
here afore, and do ye want me to make up their winter shoes 
for 'em?" 

So the conversation went on until they had struck a bar- 
gain, that the Crispin should board with the farmer and make 
up the shoes for himself and the children, the farmer paying 
for the leather and so much by the week for the man's work. 
The shoemaker then made a strong pair of cowhide boots for 
the father of the family ; a pair of kid shoes for the good 
wife ; two pairs of calfskin shoes for the two girls : two pairs 
of ingrain boots for the older boys ; and two pairs of kid shoes 
for the younger boys. The silver jingled in the pocket of 
the Crispin when his task was completed, and he traveled 
onward to the next farm. He had appropriated to himself 
a certain section of villages and country, and he would treat 
the matter as a serious misdemeanor should any other Cris- 
pin trespass upon his territory. 



1 66 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

The Crispins of those days were honest and faithful in 
their work. Slow they were, — that cannot be denied. Even 
as late as the early half of this century a good shoemaker 
has been known to labor from morning till night through the 
six days of the week on one pair of fine, sewed, calfskin 
boots, and the entire price which the customer paid for them 
was $5, which included both labor and material. 

What a contrast from the ancient method the present sys- 
tem furnishes ! Not long since a wedding was to occur in 
Salem, Massachusetts. A telegram was sent at ten o'clock in 
the morning to Lynn, ordering a pair of ladies' slippers made 
from white kid, to be worn at the ceremony that afternoon. 
The shoes were cut out and made up complete and for- 
warded to Salem by the two o'clock train. 

Miss Sarah E. Wiltse in her stories for children tells 
how little Alice was drinking her cup of milk one night 
when she asked her father to tell her a story about the good 
cow, for her third finger. She said : " The cow does three 
things for me now. Here is milk for my thumb, butter for 
the pointer, cheese for Mr. Tallman, and now my third fin- 
ger, ;Mr, Feebleman, wants something. What can the cow 
give me for my third finger? " 

Her father then told her the story of a king in the long, 
long ago, — I think it must have been in the pre-historic 
times, — a king who put into one pile the things which he 
knew, and into another pile the things which he did not 
know. Now the pile which this foolish king did not know 
was a great deal larger than the pile of things which he did 
know. Neither he nor his people knew much about making 
houses or dishes or even clothes for themselves. They went 
barefooted and bareheaded all the time. One day the king's 
horse fell dead and he was obliged to walk a long distance. 



CLOTHING — LEATHER. 16/ 

The sharp stones cut his feet, and the briars and brambles 
pricked them and tore them. Then the king told his people 
to put down a carpet for him to walk on. So they all w^ent 
to work to make coarse carpets for the king to w^alk upon. 

They had hard work to make carpets enough to lay down 
in advance of the king, day after day, as he traveled across 
the country. At length one of his servants went away by 
himself and worked all night. The next morning he came 
and knelt before the king and said : 

"Sire, I have a carpet for the whole earth, though none 
but the king may walk upon it. Upon this carpet thou canst 
climb mountains and thy feet be not bruised; thou canst 
wander in the valleys and thy feet never be torn by bram- 
bles ; thou canst tread the burning desert and thy feet remain 
unscorched." 

Then the king said : " Bring me that priceless carpet and 
half my kingdom shall be thine." The servant brought to 
the king a pair of shoes which he had made in the night. 
This was a new carpet for the king; and so this w^as the 
fourth good thing which the cow gave to Alice ; the milk she 
put down for the thumb, the butter for the first finger, the 
cheese for the middle finger, and now she put leather for 
the third finger. What great changes have taken place in 
the process of making boots and shoes since this witty ser- 
vant made the carpet for the king's feet! 

Let us trace briefly the history of leather and the evolu- 
tion of a pair of shoes. In the early colonial days the skins 
of animals were widely used for clothing. Caps were made 
for the men and boys from bear skins, wolf skins, and the 
skins of the catamount. Overcoats with sleeves and hoods 
were made of skins of wild animals properly dressed, with 
the hair on. Moccasins for winter service were from the 



i68 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



same material. Buckskin breeches with fringed edges were 
in common use. These costumes in the newly settled regions 
of our Western country continued until fifty or sixty years ago. 
In the winter of 1842-43 Dr. Marcus Whitman made his 
memorable journey from Oregon across the country to the 
States. On a later occasion he described the dress which he 
wore on that remarkable horseback ride. He said: "I wore 

buckskin breeches, fur 
moccasins, a blue duf- 
fle coat, a buffalo over- 
coat with hood, and a 
bearskin cap. Rather 
a fantastic garb for a 
missionary, wasn't it? " 
Inventions and ma- 
chinery have done 
much to improve the 
processes of tanning 
leather. Tanning it- 

DR. WHITMAN STARTING ON HIS JOURNEY. SClf iS 3. CUHOUS prOC- 

ess. It changes raw 
hides into a condition in which the skins are useful in the 
arts and manufactures. This process renders the skins 
nearly impervious to water, and makes them so tough that 
they can withstand the ravages of time and remain firm and 
strong even for centuries. 

It is said that specimens of leather have been discovered 
in China which are surely three thousand years old. They 
had been tanned by the process which is called " alum tan- 
nage." When Columbus discovered America he found, in 
possession of the Indians, skins that had been tanned. Their 
process of tanning, too, was practically the alum method. 




'^'fOii^ - 



CLOTHING — LEATHER. 169 

Sir Edwin Arnold found a pair of slippers in a sarcophagus 
in India, and nothing else was present except a small heap 
of dust. In the huts of the Rock Dwellers in Arizona 
tanned leather has been found. In ancient Babylon they 
had a process of tanning, and nearly two thousand years ago 
the Russians and Hungarians were skilled in the art. The 
ancient Romans knew how to tan leather with oil, alum, and 
bark. 

Most of the early tanning, however, was without bark. 
The process was accomplished with oil, clay, sour milk, and 
smoke. Later, nutgalls and leaves began to be used. Oak 
bark is the principal material now employed throughout the 
world in tanning. Besides the oak bark, the barks of hem- 
lock, pine, birch, and willow are utilized. 

When the texture of the skin has been so changed by this 
tanning process as to become tough and durable, then the 
name leather is given to it. In the days of the Crispins six 
months was as short a time as the tanner thought needful for 
the proper curing of the hides. The process was crude, long, 
and laborious ; but the leather, ah ! the leather — it was strong 
and would wear like iron. Even the children did not need 
copper toes. To-day the methods have changed greatly ; in 
no way more noticeably than in the shorter time required. 
The modern process must be considered an improvement, 
even though the leather is not as strong as formerly. 

The skins of most animals may be used to make leather. 
The domestic animals, cows, calves, and sheep, are first called 
upon to give their skins for leather. Glazed kid is made 
from goat skins. Kangaroo leather is much used for shoes. 
Considerable use is made of alligator leather for satchels and 
bags and even for shoes. Skins of lizards, snakes, and seals 
are used ; walrus hides are tanned, and the leather used for 



I/O AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

polishing knives and tools. " Patent leather " is made prin- 
cipally of cowhide, horsehide, and calfskin. Horsehide 
leather is very tough and durable, but is too elastic for some 
purposes. Harness leather is made from steer and cow 
hides. " Russia leather," formerly made only in Russia, has 
been a favorite material for the choicest kinds of pocket- 
books and satchels. Bookbinders prefer it for binding their 
most costly volumes. 

Marshall Jewell was a New Hampshire boy. He learned 
the trade of tanning and worked at it with his father. 
While yet a young man, he removed to Hartford, Connecti- 
cut. There, at first with his father and afterward alone, 
he carried on a large business in manufacturing leather 
belting. He was three times governor of the State. The 
year after leaving the governor's chair he was appointed 
Minister to Russia. While in that country, through his inti- 
mate knowledge of the methods of tanning, he discovered the 
secret of the Russian process. It had never been known 
before in our country. Under his direction it was intro- 
duced here, and within the last twenty-five years it has come 
into very extensive use. The process is quite simple. It is 
thus described : Steep the leather in a solution of fifty pounds 
each of oak and hemlock bark and sumach, one pound of 
willow bark and nine hundred gallons of water; heat by 
steam, and immerse the leather till struck through, and while 
the material is still damp smear on the outer side a solution 
of oil of birch bark dissolved in a little alcohol and ether. 
This imparts to the leather its odor and its pliability. 

A boot or shoe consists principally of two parts: the sole, 
made of thick, tough, strong leather, and the uppers, made 
of a softer, more pliable leather. By the old process the 
boot or the shoe was made throughout by a single person. 



CLOTHING — LEATHER. 17I 

By the modern process, one person cuts out the shoe, another 
binds it, and a third puts it upon the last; still another man- 
ages the machine which sews the sole and the upper together, 
a different person trims the edges, some one else attends to 
the next process in the division of labor, until, it may be, a 
dozen persons have done something to the making of one 
shoe. 

The modern improved machines for sewing on the soles 
of shoes are wonderful instruments. Upon one machine a 
good workman will sew eight hundred pairs of women's 
shoes in ten hours. A great part of the boots and shoes 
worn by the people of this country are made with this im- 
proved machinery in large establishments in New York, 
Philadelphia, Baltimore, and other large cities, and particu- 
larly in several towns in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, 
and Maine. The most important seat of this manufacture 
is Lynn, Massachusetts, but great quantities of shoes are 
made in Brockton, Haverhill, Milford, Marblehead, Danvers, 
and Worcester in Massachusetts, Portland, Auburn, and 
Augusta in Maine, and Dover and Farmington, in New 
Hampshire. 



CHAPTER VI. 
NEEDLES. 

In the earlier times what was the mantle that covered the 
human person? How was it made? How was it held to- 
gether? With what was the sewing thereof? When was 
thread first used for the seam ? How early in human his- 
tory was the eye made for the needle? 

From the beginning of history we find references to sew- 
ing, even earlier than to weaving. We might naturally sup- 
pose that leather was. sewed before cloth, and that stout 
leathern thongs served for thread. The leather string for 
thread and the awl for the needle must have been in use 
long, long ago. The stout moccasin, the wolfskin cap, the 
buckskin breeches were sewed by punching holes and labo- 
riously pulling a leather string through them. By and by, 
however, some skillful inventor produced the needle. Per- 
haps the first needles were made of bone or ivory. Then 
metal was used. 

What a great invention was the eye of the needle ! No 
one knows who was the inventor, but we have reason to bless 
the unknown personage who first devised this ingenious ar- 
rangement. Would you not like to see the needles that were 
in use hundreds of years ago? They were not like the finely 
finished needles of to-day. Crude and coarse were they, and 
only adapted to the crude and coarse sewing which could 
then be performed. To-day the needle-woman is often an 



CLOTHING — NEEDLES. 



173 



artist. Einbroidery is done with the needle. The plain 
seam, the hem, the gather, the back stitch, are simply so many 
forms of the work of an artist. 

Century after century our needle-makers have been im- 
proving in the manufacture of this simple but effective little 
machine. In the compli- 
cated civilization of the pres- 
ent time we have an almost 
infinite variety of needles: 
the ordinary sewing needle 
for the making of garments; 
smaller needles for lace work, 
the hemming of delicate 
handkerchiefs and the seam 
of fine silk goods ; and coarse 
and heavy needles for carpet 
sewing, bagging, and leather 
work. 

All this relates to sewing 
by hand, with a single needle 
and one thread. It is stitch 

by stich, first one, then another; it is like the brook, — "it 
goes on forever." It is like the clock that repeats its tick 
tock, tick tock by the hour, by the day, by the week, by the 
year. Perhaps many seamstresses would not recognize the 
duty of blessing the man who invented the needle. The 
poet Hood has told this side of the story in his famous poem, 
"The Song of the vShirt." 

" With fingers wear}'- and worn, 
With eyelids heavy and red, 
A woman sits in unwomanly rags, 
Plying her needle and thread — 




w >. _ 



SEWING BY HAND. 



174 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

Stitch! Stitch! Stitch! 

In poverty, hunger, and dirt. 



Work! Work! Work! 

While the cock is crowing aloof! 

And work — work — work. 

Till the stars shine through the roof ! 



Band and gusset and seam, 
Seam and gusset and band. 
Till the heart is sick, 
And the brain benumbed 
As well as the weary hand." 

Indeed, the time had come long ago when some ingenious 
device was needed by which the seamstress could sew with 
less wear and tear of nerve and muscle. Efforts were made 
in England for machine sewing nearly one hundred and fifty 
years ago, but they were not successful. A sewing machine 
was invented by Thomas Saint about one hundred years ago 
which had some of the features of the sewing machine of 
to-day. 

It was left, however, for American inventors to produce 
machines that would do the work easily and successfully ; the 
machines themselves had such simplicity and were so nicely 
adapted that they were not likely to get out of repair but 
would remain serviceable during a long period of years. 
Sewing machines in large numbers were invented during the 
period from 1830 to i860. 

As early as 18 18 a sewing machine was invented by Rev. 
John Adams Dodge, of Vermont. He used a needle pointed 
at each end with the e3"e in the middle. This machine would 
make a good backstitch and sew a seam straight forward. It 



CLOTHING — NEEDLES. 1/5 

was not patented and did not get into use to any considerable 
extent. In 1832 Walter Hunt, of New York, brought out a 
machine which used two threads, one being carried by a 
shuttle and the other by a curved needle with the eye in the 
point. This machine also was not patented. 

Ten years later, J. J. Greenough patented a machine for 
sewing leather and other heavy material, but this also did 
not acquire any extended use. About the same time George 
H. Corliss invented a strong, heavy machine for sewing 
leather, using two needles with the eyes near the points ; this 
machine was evidently an improvement on previous at- 
tempts. Mr. Corliss soon turned his attention to improve- 
ments of the steam engine and did not continue his efforts to 
perfect his sewing machine. 

Hence it was that the first really successful sewing ma- 
chine was that of Elias Howe, patented in 1846. The first 
form of Howe's machine was far from satisfactory, but it was 
an improvement on all previous machines. Howe could not 
induce the people to appreciate the value of his invention, and 
he went to England and there secured patents. But in Eng- 
land also he became discouraged, and sold out his rights 
for that country and returned home. 

Meantime others had pirated his invention and were mak- 
ing his machines and placing them upon the market. Howe 
immediately asserted his rights and, after a series of suits in 
court, he succeeded in establishing them, so that finally his 
machine came into extended use and its inventor reaped a 
large pecuniary reward from his genius and skill. Improve- 
ments now came forward rapidly. Patents were soon issued 
to Allen B. Wilson of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Isaac M. 
Singer of New York, and William O. Grover of Boston. 
Later, the Weed, the Florence, the Wilcox & Gibbs, the 



1/6 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

Remington, Domestic, American, Household, and many oth- 
ers were added to the list of successful machines. 

It is unnecessary to describe the difference in these ma- 
chines and the various wavs in which the stitch is made. 
Some of them make the lock stitch, others the double loop 
stitch, and still others the single chain stitch. The best 
machines make also a special buttonhole stitch and have par- 
ticular devices by which they gather and ruffle, tuck, hem, 
bind, and whatever else is required to be done with thread. 

One machine or another can be used for almost any kind 
of sewing. With them we sew shoes and boots, heavy 
woolen goods like beaver, several thicknesses of duck, or, 
on the other hand, the very finest and nicest muslin. Sew- 
ing machines are used in the making of gloves, pocketbooks, 
traveling bags, and other articles of this character. Special 
machines sew seams on water hose, leather buckets, bootlegs, 
and other articles which require the seam to be made in a 
circle. 

No other country has so many factories or such large ones 
for making sewing machines as the United States. The 
establishments which manufacture sewing machines have a 
combined capital of more than twenty million dollars, and 
the value of their annual product aggregates about fifteen 
million dollars. Meanwhile the price of sewing machines 
has diminished so that they are now sold for less than one- 
half, and sometimes as low as one-fourth, of the original 
price. 

In 1830 a Frenchman, Marthelemy Thimonier, con- 
structed of wood eighty machines which made a chain stitch 
of great strength. These were used for making clothing for 
the French army. Laborers were so incensed at this inven- 
tion, which they thought was contrary to their interests, that 



CLOTHING — NEEDLES. 1/7 

they raised a riot and destroyed all of the machines. A few 
years later this inventor made other machines constructed of 
metal, and these were also destroyed by a mob. 

Many times it has happened that laborers have supposed 
that they would be great losers from the invention of labor- 
saving machines. Instead of this proving to be true, it would 
seem that laborers are benefited by the inventions. There 
is much evidence showing that while inventions greatly di- 
minish the amount of labor necessary to accomplish a certain 
result, on the other hand they open up new lines of industry 
which fully compensate laborers for the loss which would 
otherwise fall upon them. It is to be noted also that, in our 
country at least, the wages of laborers have increased in the 
period during which labor-saving machines have been in- 
vented. 

The modern sewing machine is an inestimable blessing 
to a family. In former days, the mother of half a dozen chil- 
dren would be obliged to ply the needle night after night 
until the small hours in order to keep her little ones prop- 
erly clad. Now, with the little iron machine standing upon 
its small table on one side of the room, the good mother can 
make up the necessary garments for her children in quick 
time, leaving her far more hours for sleep, recreation, and 
social life than would be possible under the old method. 
Many a one can now call down blessings not only upon " the 
man who invented sleep," but upon the man who invented 
the sewing machine which gives one time to sleep. 

12 



CHAPTER VII. 







THE STEAM ENGINE. 

At the very summit of a mountain near Pasadena, Cali- 
fornia, stands a huge windmill, which may be seen for many 
miles in all directions. Here the wind blows almost con- 
stantly, and the great arms of the windmill are employed to 

lift water from a well in 
the valley below to irri- 
gate the orange groves 
on the hillsides. Thus 
the wind has been har- 
nessed by man to serve 
his purpose. 

Nature has not only 
furnished wind for a 
motive force, but it has 
also provided man with 
water power. The 
water wheel, with its ac- 
companying dam across 
the stream, has been in general use from the time of the 
earliest settlements. The weight of the water turned a 
wheel, thus developing a force which was employed for 
sawing lumber or grinding grain. When cotton and woolen 
manufactories were first introduced, water power was almost 
universally used. 

After wind and water came steam. A very simple steam 







AN OLD WINDMILL. 



CLOTHING — THE STEAM ENGINE. 1 79 

engine was devised by Hero more than two thousand years 
ago, but it was of little practical value and was soon forgot- 
ten. Not until the beginning of the eighteenth century w^as 
a machine invented which could successfully produce motion 
by steam. This engine, made by an Englishman named 
Newcomen, was very wasteful and was used only to pump 
water from mines. 

Less than one hundred and fifty years ago a young Scotch- 
man named James Watt set himself to the task of improving 
the Newcomen engine and of making a steam engine that 
would furnish power for different purposes. He devoted his 
whole thought to his work, and after twenty years of study 
he succeeded. The Watt steam engine is the basis of all 
engines to-day. James Watt did not discover steam power, 
but he made the steam engine of real value. 

Many of the first engines used in this country for manii- 
facturing purposes were made by Boulton and Watt in Bir- 
mingham. The first steam engines made in America were 
rough and crude, but the improvement in their construction 
was rapid. At the present time engines of the finest con- 
struction, with the latest improvements and adapted to all 
kinds of work, are made in many establishments all over our 
land. Engines are made for marine purposes — steamboats, 
yachts, and war-vessels, — stationary engines for all sorts of 
manufactures, and locomotives for the railroads. Perhaps 
the greatest improvements in the manufacture of steam en- 
gines have been the result of the talent and genius of George 
H. Corliss. 

In 1825, when George was only eight years of age, hi& 
father moved to Greenwich, New York, wdiere the boy grew 
up to manhood. Here he went to school, was clerk in a 
country store, and was employed in the first cotton factory 



l8o AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

built in that State. Little did the people of that country 
village think that this quiet boy had in him such wonderful 
mechanical genius as he afterward displayed. 

His father's house was situated near the bank of a small 
stream which was much swollen every springtime by the 
freshets from the melting snows above. A bridge which 
spanned this stream was carried away one year by the fresh- 
ets. Young Corliss, then twenty-one years of age, proposed 
to build a cantilever bridge. Everybody said that the scheme 
was impossible ; he could not do it, it would be a failure. 
Nevertheless he succeeded, and the bridge was built. It 
proved entirely successful. It withstood the freshets and 
was in service, scarcely needing repairs, for many years. 

He went to Providence when he was twenty-seven years 
of age, and before he was thirty he had established himself 
as the head of the firm of " Corliss, Nightingale and Company, " 
for the manufacture of steam engines. He was but a little 
over thirty years old when he patented his great improve- 
ments, applied to the steam engine. These improvements 
were such as to produce uniformity of motion and to prevent 
the loss of steam. By connecting the valve with an ingen- 
ious cut-off, which he invented, he made the engine work 
with such uniformity that, if all but one of a hundred looms 
in a factory were suddenly stopped, that one would go on 
working at the same rate of speed as before. 

The improvements which Mr. Corliss effected at once rev- 
olutionized the construction of the steam engine. He im- 
mediately began the erection of immense buildings for his 
machine shops, where now are employed more than a thou- 
sand men. In 1856 the "Corliss Steam Engine Company" 
was incorporated, and Mr. Corliss, purchasing the interest 
of his partners, soon owned all the stock of this company and 



CLOTHING — THE STEAM ENGINE. 



I8l 



was both president and treasurer. During a long period of 
more than forty years Mr. Corliss, who was a large-hearted, 
benevolent man interested in public affairs relating to city. 
State, and nation, devoted himself with great industry to the 
development of his in- 
ventions. 

Perhaps the most 
conspicuous work which 
more than anything else 
carried his name to all 
the nations of the earth 
was the construction of 
the great engine which 
furnished the motive 
power for all the ma- 
chinery in operation in 
Machinery Hall, at the 
Centennial Exhibition 
in Philadelphia in 1876. 
Of this engine !M. Bar- 
tholdi, in his report to 

the French Government, said : " It belonged to the category 
of works of art by the general beauty of its effect and its per- 
fect balance to the eye." Professor Radinger, of the Poly- 
technic School in Vienna, pronounced the engine one of the 
greatest works of the day. 

This engine stood in the center of Machinery Hall upon 
a platform 56 feet in diameter. The two working beams 
were 40 feet above the platform, and were seen from all 
parts of the building, being the most conspicuous objects in 
the hall. The fly-wheel was 30 feet in diameter with a face 
of 24 inches. 




A CORLISS ENGINE. 



l82 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

This engine carried eight main lines of shafting, each line 
being 650 feet in length, and the larger part of this shafting 
was speeded to 120 revolutions a minute, while one line, used 
principally for wood-working machines, made 240 revolutions 
per minute. The engine weighed 7,000 tons, and its power 
was equivalent to 1,400 horse-power. The entire cost, about 
$200,000, was borne by Mr. Corliss. The engine is now in 
active service, furnishing the motive power for the entire 
works of the Pullman Car Company. 

During the later years of Mr. Corliss's life he devoted 
much time and thought to inventing improved pumps to be 
used in connection with city waterworks, " for forcing water 
to higher levels." He made for the city of Providence a ro- 
tary pump for high service which worked automatically, keep- 
ing the pipes in the upper sections of the city full at all times 
whether much or little water was used. This ingenious 
pump was visited by mechanics from all parts of the world. 
Only a few years before his death Mr. Corliss built another 
pump, an account of which was published some years ago. 
This account included the following incident : 

" I went down to Pettaconsett, the other day, to see the 
foundations of the building that Mr. Corliss is putting up 
there for the new pumping engine which he has engaged to 
put in for this city. I found that, in digging for the founda- 
tions, they came upon a deep bed of quicksand. Mr. Corliss, 
ever fertile in expedients to overcome obstacles, instead of 
driving down wooden piles, sunk in this quicksand great 
quantities of large cobblestones. These were driven down 
into the sand with tremendous force by a huge iron ball 
weighing four thousand pounds. I said : ' Mr. Corliss, why 
did not you drive wooden piles on which to build your foun- 
dation?' 



CLOTHING THE STEAM ENGINE. 1 83 

"'Don't you see,' said he, ' that the piles have 710 discre- 
tion, and that the cobblestones have? ' 

"'I don't think I understand you, Mr. Corliss,' was my 
reply. 

"'If you drive a pile,* said he, * it goes zv here you drive it^ 
and noivJiere else; but a cobblestone will seek the softest place 
and go where it is most needed. It therefore has discretion, 
and better answers the purpose.' 

" I went away musing that the wooden ' piles ' and the 
* cobblestones ' represent two classes of boys. ' The piles,' 
said Mr. Corliss, ' have no discretion, and go only where they 
are driven.' I think I have seen boys who represented this 
quality. ' But the cobblestones go where they are the most 
needed.' When boys fit themselves to go where they are the 
most needed, they will be pretty likely to meet with tolerably 
good success in life." 

The great service Mr. Corliss has rendered to the world 
through his inventions is shown by the awards made to him 
from the highest scientific authorities. At the Paris Exposi- 
tion (1867) he received the highest competitive prize in com- 
petition with more than a hundred engines. A great Eng- 
lish engineer, one of the British commissioners at the 
Exposition, said: "The American engine of Mr. Corliss 
everywhere tells of wise forethought, judicious proportion, 
sound execution, and exquisite contrivance." 

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1870 
awarded to Mr. Corliss the Rumford Medal. This medal 
was presented by Dr. Asa Gray, who said : " No invention 
since Watt's time has so enhanced the efficiency of the steam 
engine as this." 

At the Vienna Exhibition in 1873 Mr. Corliss sent nei- 
ther engine nor machinery, nor had he any one there to rep- 



1 84 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

resent him ; but the grand diploma of honor was awarded to 
him. This was done because foreign builders had sent their 
engines, which they themselves claimed were built on his 
system, and they had placed his name on their productions. 

The steam engine to-day is of vastly greater importance 
than it has ever been before, especially in its use for furnish- 
ing the motive power for cotton and woolen factories, and for 
all kinds of manufacturing establishments. What should we 
do to-day without the steam engine? Long before the begin- 
ning of this century Erasmus Darwin sang as follows : 

" Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam ! afar 
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car." 

All this has long been fulfilled. How long will it be before 
his next two lines will also prove a reality? 

" Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear 
The flying chariot through the field of air." 




ROBERT FULTON. 



SECTION V.-TRAVEL. 




< 

J? 

O 

o 









^ 



-^ .2 

i I 



SECTION v.— TRAVEL. 



CHAPTER I. 
BY LAND. 

"Well, Charles, how do you purpose to go to the city 
to-day? The paper this morning contains some news that 
ought to interest you. There was a washout at Turk's 
Bridge last evening, and it will be several hours yet before 
trains can run." 

This question was asked by Mrs. Barlow, one morning 
during the great street-car strike when the motormen and 
conductors had refused to run cars until their demands were 
granted. 

"I see but one way left open for me," replied her hus- 
band. "The roads must be very muddy, and I cannot go on 
my bicycle. I suppose that I shall be compelled to walk. 
That was the original mode of traveling, and I imagine that 
in this case of necessity I can try it again. I am not used to 
so long a walk, but I see no other way. In one respect I am 
better off than my ancestors were, for I have good level side- 
walks, most of them paved, instead of rough paths, partly 
trodden down. I will start to walk, anyway." 

Mr. Barlow did not own a horse, and could not drive to 
the city. He did not feel able to hire a public carriage, as, 
since the street-car strike began, so many desired to ride that 
the drivers charged very high prices. But he felt that he must 



1 88 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

attend to his business in the city that day, and immediately 
after breakfast he started on his five-mile walk. He was 
very tired before he reached the office, and the walk home 
in the afternoon wearied him still more. He was therefore 
greatly pleased the next morning to find that the strike was 
over, the railroad bridge repaired, the muddy roads nearly 
dry, and a choice open to him to travel either by steam cars, 
electric street cars, or bicycle. 

Mr. Barlow learned an interesting lesson by this one day's 
experience. He obtained something of an idea of the life of 
his ancestors, who were compelled to walk whenever they 
had business to transact. He realized more than ever be- 
fore what improvements had been made in the last three cen- 
turies in the means for travel. His thoughts were turned 
directly to these changes, and for several weeks he studied 
histories and scientific works to learn the ways in which these 
improvements came about. Let us note some of the results 
of his study. 

Nearly three hundred years ago. Captain Newport, with 
a few small vessels, sailed up the James River, in Virginia. 
After some weeks the fleet returned to England, leaving 
about one hundred men, the colonists of Jamestown, the first 
permanent English settlement in America. Here was a little 
village, with the Atlantic Ocean, thousands of miles wide, 
separating the colonists from all their friends and acquaint- 
ances. The great forest which covered the entire Atlantic 
coast contained now this clearing on the banks of the James 
River. North of the settlement dense woods extended in 
every direction ; no white men lived nearer than the French 
colonies of Quebec and Nova Scotia. To the south also 
spread the forest ; the nearest European settlement was the 
Spanish colony of Saint Augustine. Westward for hundreds 



TRAVEL — BY LAND. 1 89 

and thousands of miles the almost uninhabited wilderness 
extended to the Pacific Ocean, the very existence of which 
was scarcely suspected by white men. Thus was the James- 
town colony almost entirely shut off from the world of civ- 
ilization, a feeble band of Europeans surrounded by savage 
red men. 

What interest had these colonists in travel? Tossed on 
the ocean as they had been for many weeks, worn with sea- 
sickness and lack of nourishing food, few had any desire to 
see more of the world. Besides, if they had wished to travel, 
where could they have gone? Roads through the forests 
were unknown ; rivers were spanned by no bridges ; swamps 
and marshes extended in every direction. The most remote 
houses were at easy walking distance. The little church 
was not far even from the last house in the village. If need 
for firewood or lumber led any one into the forest, he must, 
go afoot. If any necessity arose for communication with 
the Indians, the journey must be made on foot. Thus we 
see that in the early days of Virginia what travel there was 
by land was limited to walking. 

Thirteen years after the building of Jamestown a second 
English colony was planted in America. Another band of a 
hundred persons began a settlement at Plymouth in New 
England. The colony of Virginia had become well estab- 
lished by this time, yet it could be of but little help to Plym- 
outh.. Many hundred miles distant, it seemed hardly nearer 
than old England itself. The Pilgrims at Plymouth lived 
by themselves, as had the Virginia colonists, and for some 
years what travel they had was also on foot. 

Time passed on in both colonies. New settlers came over 
the ocean to Virginia, and other villages were built at some 
distance from Jamestown. Thus arose reasons for journeys 



190 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

— desire to see friends in other villages — necessities of trade 
or commerce between the settlements. At first, of course, 
as travel by foot within a village was common, so journeys 
between villages were made in the same way. 

An easier means of communication was provided w^hen 
horses were brought over from England. These came in 
small numbers at first; there were but six horses in Virginia 
when the settlers had been there nine years. Thousands of 
years ago wild horses ranged in great numbers over the 
whole continent of America. But, for some reason or other, 
these had all perished, and when Columbus discovered the 
new world the red men were wholly unacquainted with these 
animals or their use. Therefore, when the white settlers in 
America desired horses they found it necessary to bring them 
in vessels from Europe. 

To the first and most common mode of travel, by foot, 
was thus added the second method, namely, on horseback. 
In the old world this use of horses had existed for thousands 
of years. In fact, three hundred and four hundred years 
ago, at the time of the discovery and settlement of America, 
it was almost the universal means for land travel. It was 
natural then that it should be the first form taken up in 
America. Besides, the making of a bridle path through the 
woods, that is, a path wide enough for a man on horseback, 
was a comparatively simple matter. To build a carriage 
road would have been a much more difficult task. 

In New England, as well as in Virginia, the population 
rapidly increased. The Plymouth colonists began to build 
other villages. A new colony \vas founded on the coast of 
Massachusetts Bay, but thirty miles from Plymouth. Here 
were established the towns of Salem, Charlestown, Rox- 
bury, Dorchester, Newtown, and Boston. Other towns were 



TRAVEL — BY LAND. 



191 



soon built and clearings were made in every direction. 
Travel by horseback became common among those who could 
afford to keep horses. 
Those who were too poor 
must still travel on foot. 

;Most of the traveling was 
done by men. We read that 
Queen Elizabeth was an ac- 
complished horsewoman ; 
but as a rule few women 
were accustomed to hold 
the reins, and few side-sad- 
dles were in use. The 
horses of those days were 
very strong. They were 
trained to carry heavy bur- 
dens on their backs rather 
than to draw loaded w^agons. 
They frequently carried 
more than one person ; it 
was not unusual to see a 
man riding horseback, and 
behind him his wife, sitting 

sideways and holding on to her husband to keep from slip- 
ping off. For her comfort a pillion was used, which was a 
pad or cushion fastened to the saddle. 

Not only was Massachusetts Bay rapidly settled, but vil- 
lages were built fifty and even a hundred miles from Bos- 
ton. Providence, Newport, and Portsmouth were founded, 
forming the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Planta- 
tions. Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor w^ere estab- 
lished on the Connecticut. Dover and Portsmouth in New 




MAX 



AND HIS WIFE TRAVELING 
HORSEBACK. 



ON 



192 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

Hampshire, New Haven and Saybrook in Connecticut were 
built, and the village of Agawam, now Springfield, was 
founded. 

All of these new settlements needed some connection 
with Boston, or the Old Bay Colony as it was called. The 
roads were mere paths, however, and over them carriages 
could not have passed, if there had been any. In a story 
written by J. G. Holland, called "Bay-Path," he described 
life in Agawam more than two and a half centuries ago, and 
his description of the roads and travel in those days is well 
worth reading. 

"The principal communication with the Eastern settle- 
ment was by a path marked by trees a portion of the dis- 
tance, and by slight clearings of brush and thicket for the 
remainder. No stream was bridged, no hill graded, and no 
marsh drained. The path led through woods which bore the 
marks of centuries, and along the banks of streams that the 
seine had never dragged. The path was known as ' the 
Bay-Path,' or the path to the bay. 

" It was wonderful what a powerful interest was attached 
to the Bay-Path. It was the channel through which laws 
were communicated, through which flowed news from distant 
friends, and through which came long, loving letters and 
messages. That rough thread of soil, chopped by the blades 
of a hundred streams, was a bond that radiated at each ter- 
minus into a thousand fibers of love and interest and hope 
and memory. 

" The Bay-Path w^as charmed ground — a precious passage 
— and during the spring, the summer, and the early autumn 
hardly a settler at Agawam went out of doors or changed his 
position in the fields, or looked up from his labor, or rested 
his oars upon the bosom of the river, without turning his 



TRAVEL — BY LAND. 



193 







eyes to the point at which that path opened from the brow 
of the wooded hill upon the East. And when some worn 
and wearied man came in sight upon his half-starved horse, 
or two or three pedestrians, bending* beneath their packs and 
swinging their sturdy staves, were seen approaching, the 
village was astir 
from one end to the 
other. 

" The Bay-Path 
became better 

marked from year to 
year as settlements 
began to string them- 
selves upon it as 
upon a thread. 
Every year the foot- 
steps of those who 
trod it hurried more 
and more until, at 
last, wheels began 

to be heard upon it — heavy carts creaking with merchandise. 
A century passed away and the wilderness had retired. 
There was a constant roll along the Bay-Path. The finest of 
the wheat and the fattest of the flocks and herds were trans- 
ported to the Bay, whose young commerce had already begun 
to whiten the coast. 

" The dreamy years passed by, and then came the furious 
stagecoach, traveling night and day — splashing the mud, 
brushing up the dust, dashing up to inns, and carving more 
slowly up to post-offices. The journey was reduced to a day, 
And then — miracle of miracles — came the railway and the 
locomotive. The journey of a day is reduced to three hours." 
13 



THE BAY-PATH. 



CHAPTER II. 
BY WATER. 

When the Virginia colonists reached the shores of Amer- 
ica, they sailed up the James River until they found a penin- 
sula extending into the river and there they built James- 
town. When the Pilgrims completed their explorations of 
the shores of Cape Cod Bay, they chose the harbor of Plym- 
outh as the best situation for their colony. Lord Baltimore 
established the Maryland colony at St. Mary's on an arm of 
the Chesapeake Bay. The Dutch founded New Amsterdam 
on the island of Manhattan, at the mouth of the Hudson 
River. The first settlements in each of the colonies were 
made on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, or but a few miles 
up large rivers. Why? The colonists had come to this new 
world in European vessels which could only bring them to 
the shore. Here they chose the most convenient place and 
built their town. 

Thus these settlers were in the very beginning familiar 
with travel by water. But what a poor, inconvenient means 
of travel it w^as ! The Jamestown colonists, one hundred and 
five in number, were tossed upon the stormy ocean for more 
than four months, enduring all the hardships of a severe win- 
ter in vessels that to-day would seldom venture upon the 
ocean, even in coastwise trade. Compare the two months 
and more of life on the Mayflower, where the passengers were 
crowded into the closest quarters, with the short six or seven 
days' trip to or from England to-day on the ocean steamers. 



TRAVEL — BY WATER. 



almost 



where travelers find comforts and conveniences 
greater than those they are accustomed to at home. 

Although the emigrants suffered greatly in these voyages 
across the Atlantic Ocean, the day of the return of the ves- 
sels to England was a sad one. When the last glimpse of the 
receding ship had vanished, the homesick watchers realized 




PILGRIM EXILES. 



as never before their isolation — their separation from ever)-- 
body and everything in which they were interested. Until 
vessels should again arrive from across the ocean they would 
be thrown entirely upon their own resources. The settlers 
were thus very dependent upon the ships that crossed the 
Atlantic so infrequently and with such difficulty. 

Soon after the settlement, however, some of the colonies 
began to build vessels of their own. The forests provided 
lumber in great quantity and of the best quality. The first 



196 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

vessel to be built by the Massachusetts Bay Colony was 
launched at Medford the next year after the settlement of 
Boston. This small vessel was owned by Governor Winthrop 
and was appropriately called the Blessing of the Bay. The 
same year a Dutch ship, twenty times as large, was con- 
structed at New Amsterdam. 

A large part of the colonial shipbuilding was confined to 
New England, the Blessing of the Bay being but a leader in 
a long line. Within two years a ship as large as the May-, 
flower was built at Boston, and another twice as large at 
Salem. Within thirty-five years Boston had one hundred 
and thirty sail on the sea. New York built fewer but larger 
ships. Philadelphia was a leading shipbuilding town, and 
many vessels were constructed in the Carolinas. 

The activity of the colonists in thus providing means for 
travel by water was not limited to ocean shipbuilding. The 
rivers, the inland roads, already prepared by nature, were 
used from the very beginning. As the settlements grew, 
both in population and in numbers, travel between them be- 
came more and more necessary, and the rivers and streams 
came more and more into use. The settlers were wise 
enough to follow the example of the Indians and to make 
themselves at once familiar with canoes and small boats of 
every description. 

The earliest form of water travel was, perhaps, the raft. It 
was usually made of floating logs or bundles of brush tied to- 
gether. To-day, even, rafts of single logs, merely pointed at 
the ends, are found in Australia, as well as rafts of reeds. On 
the coast of Peru rafts seventy feet long and twenty feet broad 
are common, — large enough to use sails as well as paddles. 

The next step was to use the single log, made hollow by 
gradually burning it out or by slowly chipping away pieces 



TRAVEL — BY WATER. 1 9/ 

with some sharp implement. On the Atlantic coast the most 
common form of canoe was the dugout, made from the cedar 
log ; and singularly enough the same tree was most frequently 
used on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, especially near Puget 
Sound. These Western boats were frequently of great size, 
some on the Alaskan coast being ninety feet in length and 
propelled by forty paddles. The Indians had found these 
dugouts very serviceable, and as the European colonists began 
to travel over the same rivers and streams they patterned 
their river craft after those of the red men. 

The lighter form of the canoe was preferred, where ser- 
viceable, to the dugout. This was made of a light but 







A BIKCH-BARK CANOE. 



strong framework covered by bark or skins. That used by 
the Esquimaux was of sealskin stretched over whalebone. 
But the more common form was the Indian birch-bark canoe, 
which rapidly became very popular among the colonial hun- 
ters and trappers. No better description of the birch canoe 
can be found than that which the children's poet, Longfel- 
low, gives in "Hiawatha." 

" 'Give me of your bark, O. Birch Tree ! 
Of your yellow bark, O Birch Tree ! 
Growing by the rushing river, 
Tall and stately in the valley ! 
I a light canoe will build me, 
Build a swift Cheemaun for sailing, 
That shall float upon the river, 



198 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

Like a yellow leaf in Autumn, 
Like a yellow water-lily! 

" 'Lay aside your cloak, O Birch Tree! 
Lay aside your white-skin wrapper. 
For the Summer-time is coming, 
And the sun is warm in heaven. 
And you need no white-skin wrapper ! ' 

" With his knife the tree he girdled ; 
Just beneath its lowest branches, 
Just above the roots, he cut it. 
Till the sap came oozing outward ; 
Down the trunk, from top to bottom. 
Sheer he cleft the bark asunder, 
With a wooden wedge he raised it. 
Stripped it from the trunk unbroken. 

" 'Give me of your boughs, O Cedar! 
Of your strong and pliant branches, 
My canoe to make more steady, 
Make more strong and firm beneath me ! ' 

" Down he hewed the boughs of cedar. 
Shaped them straightway to a framework, 
Like two bows he formed and shaped them. 
Like two bended bows together. 

" 'Give me of your roots, O Tamarack! 
Of your fibrous roots, O Larch Tree ! 
My canoe to bind together, 
So to bind the ends together 
That the water may not enter. 
That the river may not wet me ! ' 

■" From the earth he tore the fibres, 
Tore the rough roots of the Larch Tree, 
Closely sewed the bark together, 
Bound it closely to the framework. 



TRAVEL — BY WATER. 1 99 

" 'Give me of your balm, O Fir Tree\ 
Of your balsam and your resin, 
So to close the seams together 
That the water may not enter, 
That the river may not wet me ! ' 

" And he took the tears of balsam. 
Took the resin of the fir tree, 
Smeared therewith each seam and fissure, 
Made each crevice safe from water. 

" Thus the Birch Canoe was'builded 
In the valley, by the river. 
In the bosom of the forest; 
And the forest's life was in it. 
All its mystery and its magic. 
All the lightness of the birch tree, 
All the toughness of the cedar. 
All the Larch's supple sinews; 
And it floated on the river 
Like a yellow leaf in Autumn, 
Like a yellow water-lily." 



CHAPTER III. 
STAGECOACHES. 

Both by land and by water the methods of travel among 
the early colonists were extremely rude. From the early 
days of the settlements until the Independence of the United 
States the improvement was very slow. During the seven- 
teenth century practically all of the long-distance traveling 
was by water. Schooners made regular trips from New 
England to Virginia, and smaller sloops or " packets " ran 
to New York from the different towns to the eastward. 
These vessels were dependent, of course, upon the wind, and 
the length of the journey varied greatly. Perhaps a packet 
might sail from New Haven to New York in two days, but 
calms or contrary winds might delay the trip, and make it a 
week in going from port to port. 

On land, however, the facilities for travel slowly but 
surely improved. An interesting account of the rudeness 
and hardships of New England land journeys is furnished 
by the journal of Sarah Knight, who went from Boston to 
New York. on horseback nearly two hundred years ago. The 
roads were openings in the forest, made by cutting down trees, 
and were often blocked by fallen trunks. The streams that 
must be crossed caused the most trouble. "We came," she 
wrote, " to a river which they generally ride thro' ; but I dare 
not venture ; so the post got a ladd and cannoo to carry me 
to t'other side, and he rid thro' and led my hors. The cannoo 
was very small and shallow, so that when we were in she 



TRAVEL — STAGECOACHES. 201 

seemed ready to take in water, which greatly terrified mee 
and caused mee to be very circumspect, sitting with my 
hands fast on each side, my eyes stedy, not daring so much 
as to lodg my tongue a hair's breadth more on one side of 
my mouth than t'other, nor so much as think on Lott's wife, 
for a wry thought would have oversett our wherey." For a 
woman to undertake such a journey was very unusual, and 
after her return she wrote with a diamond on the glass of a 
window these lines : 

" Through many toils and many frights, 
I have returned, poor Sarah Knights. 
Over great rocks and many stones 
God has preserved from fractured bones." 

About the time that this long journey was made, car- 
riages began to come into use. The most common of these 
were the large coach, the "calash," and a lighter, two- 
wheeled vehicle, with a calash top, similar to a chaise. 
But these carriages were for a time only used within the 
towns themselves, where the large number of houses re- 
quired the building of better roads and streets. Compara- 
tively few persons could afford to own private carriages, 
and their use was therefore not general for many years. 
Before the middle of the eighteenth century, however, car- 
riages became more common. Broader and better roads 
had been built, and longer journeys could be made. As 
early as 1725, carriages had been driven from the Connec- 
ticut River to Boston, and overland travel began to be more 
customary. 

The first roads that could be called suitable for carriage 
travel were for the most part toll roads. Instead of being 
made by the towns or counties, or by the colonies, they were 



202 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



built by corporations. These companies were granted the 
privilege of charging toll from every traveler over their 
roads for the purpose of paying a profit to the members of 
the company, as well as to keep the roads in repair. In the 
same way corporations built bridges, charging a small toll 
upon every one who crossed them. Thus travel was im- 







OLD-STYLE CALASHES. 



proved, time was saved, and less discomfort was caused the 
travelers. 

In the eighteenth century public carriages began to come 
into use. Previously if any one wished to travel by land, he 
found it necessary to own or hire horses. If he made a voy- 
age by sea, he could pay his fare on some vessel that made 
the trip he wished to take. This means of public transpor- 
tation, this carrying a person or his goods for pay, had been 
limited, however, to water travel. There were no regular 
conveyances running from town to town by land which 
would carry passengers or freight. 

The town of Plymouth had been settled nearly a hundred 
years before the first line of stagecoaches in any part of the 
country was put in operation. This "stage wagon " ran be- 



TRAVEL — STAGECOACHES. 203 

tween Boston and Bristol ferry, where it connected with the 
packet line to Newport and New York. Three years later 
a stage line began to run from Boston to Newport, making 
one trip each way every week. The driver advertised to 
carry "bundles of goods, merchandise, books, men, women, 
and children." 

Travel was slow, much slower than seems possible to-day. 
The roads were still very poor, in fact scarcely fit to be called 
roads. Little by little new stage lines were established, 
nearly always in connection with some packet line. Up to 
the middle of the eighteenth century, however, opportuni- 
ties to travel by stage were few and the time required great. 
Three weeks were needed to make the trip from Boston to 
Philadelphia, even under the most favorable conditions. 

Less than three years before the battle- of Lexington, the 
first stage was run between New York and Boston. The 
first trip was begun on Monday, July 13th, and the journey's 
end was not reached until Saturday, July 25th. Thirteen 
days were thus required for a trip which may now be made 
in five or six hours. As the amount of travel increased new 
lines were formed, the roads were improved, and stages were 
run more frequently and more rapidly. Sixty years after the 
first trip was made between New York and Boston the time 
had been cut down from thirteen days to one day and five 
hours ; more than a hundred lines of coaches were then regu- 
larly running out of Boston. 

In spite, however, of every improvement, travel by stage 
a hundred years ago was no simple or pleasant matter. Pro- 
fessor McMaster says : '' The stagecoach was little better 
than a huge covered box mounted on springs. It had nei- 
ther glass windows nor door nor steps nor closed sides. The 
roof was upheld by eight posts which rose from the body of 



204 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 




the vehicle, and the body was commonly breast-high. From 
the top were hung curtains of leather, to be drawn up when 
the day was fine and let down and buttoned when rainy or 
cold. Within were four seats. Without was the baggage. 
When the baggage had all been weighed and strapped on 
the coach, when the horses had been attached, the eleven 
passengers were summoned, and, clambering to their seats 
through the front of the stage, sat down with their faces 

toward the driver's 
seat." 

The coach would 
set out from the inn 
with the horses on 
a gallop, which would 
continue until a steep 
hill was reached. 
Then would follow 
the slow pacing up 
the hill, the gallop down again, the dragging through a stretch 
of muddy road, the careful fording of a river, the watering of 
the horses every few miles, and the rapid gallop up to the next 
inn. Here the mail pouches would be taken out and in, 
perhaps a change of coaches made or more frequently of 
horses only, a delay for a little gossip, and the stage would 
be off again. This was all very exhilarating and agreeable in 
pleasant, warm weather, but how fatiguing in the cold and 
snows of winter, and even during a chilly summer storm. 

These public conveyances were used only when neces- 
sary. Private carriages were much preferred to the stage- 
coach, as being a more comfortable as well as a safer mode 
of travel. The story is told of one young lady who was vis- 
iting near Boston, eighty years ago. She was very anxious 



AN OLD-FASHIONED STAGECOACH. 



TRAVEL — STAGECOACHES. 



205 



to return to her home, but her father was unable to come for 
her. Her mother wrote : " Your papa would not trust your 
life in the stage. It is a very unsafe and improper convey- 
ance for young ladies. Many have been the accidents, many 
the cripples made by accidents in these vehicles. As soon 
as your papa can, you may be sure he will go or send for 
you." 




MUNROE TAVERN, LEXINGTON, MASS. (BUILT IN 1695.) 



Whether the traveler went by stage or in his private car- 
nage, it was necessary to stop at the inns. The taverns had 
a great deal to do with making journeys pleasant or disagree- 
able. As a general rule, the New England inns were kept 
by leading men, and in most cases the innkeeper was re- 
quired to obtain recommendations from the selectmen of the 
town before he could get a license or a permission to establish 



206 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

and keep the tavern. Even the smaller New England vil- 
lages boasted of inns that compared favorably with the hotels 
of the large towns. A Frenchman, traveling through the 
United States early in this century, wTote in highest praise 
of the inns of New England, w^hose windows w^ere without 
shutters, and whose doors had neither locks nor keys, and 
yet where no harm ever came to the traveler. He admired 
" the great room, with its low ceiling and neatly sanded floor; 
its bright pewter dishes and stout-backed, slat-bottomed 
chairs ranged along its walls ; its long table ; and its huge 
fireplace, with the benches on either side." 

He had less praise for the inns of the rest of the country. 
The buildings were poor, the fare was coarse, and the beds 
were bad. The roofs leaked, the windows were sometimes 
mere openings in the wall ; the bedding was unclean and ex- 
tremely uninviting. 

If a traveler were compelled to stop at the Southern inns, 
he found his journey far from agreeable. Fortunately for 
him the Southern planter was the most hospitable of persons. 
" At his home strangers were heartily w^elcome and nobly 
entertained. Some bade their slaves ask in any traveler that 
might be seen passing by. Some kept servants on the watch 
to give notice of every approaching horseman or of the dis- 
tant rumble of a coming coach and four." On the plantation 
the traveler w^as always treated as a most intimate friend, and 
in the cheery comfort of the mansion he forgot, for the time 
being, the trials and hardships of travel by land. 



CHAPTER IV. 
STEAMBOATS, 

The idea of payment for transportation is very old. 
Thousands of years ago we read of vessels sailing upon the 
Mediterranean Sea prepared to transport persons or freight 
for sums of money. Where this idea originated is not known, 
but it may have occurred to a savage for the first time in some 
such way as the following : 

A hunter lived on the banks of a river in Asia. One day 
he shot a duck which fell to the ground on the opposite 
shore. The hunter needed the bird, for he was hungry, but 
how was he to obtain it? The river was very deep at this 
point, and he could not swim. He knew that there was a 
shallow place five miles up the stream, where he might ford 
the river, and another ford five miles below. But to cross 
by either of these would require a journey of ten miles to the 
bird and ten miles back, just to get across a narrow river. 
He remembered that a big log lay upon a sand-bar in the 
river not far from where he was. He took a pole, pried off 
the log and rolled it into the water. Then seating himself 
on it he poled himself across, obtained the duck, and soon 
reached his home again. Here was the first water travel. 

A few days later he heard a cry from over the river. 
Looking up, he saw a man who desired to cross. The 
stranger called to him to get his log and take him over, as 
he had carried himself. The hunter saw that the stranger 
had a deer on his shoulder. He was hungry, and therefore 



208 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

called out : " Give me the hind leg and half the loin of your 
deer for my labor, and I will bring you safely over." The 
stranger promptly agreed, and the hunter poled across the 
river. In some such way doubtless was the first payment 
made for transportation, and the idea soon became common 
that it was just and proper to charge a fare for carrying 
freight and passengers. 

What powers have we found used in transportation up to 
a hundred years ago? First there was human power, either 
walking or plying oars or paddles. This energy is limited ; 
walking is necessarily a slow process, and rowing is seldom a 
rapid mode of travel. Then came horse power, used first to 
carry travelers or goods and later to draw carriages and 
wagons, conveying passengers and freight. Horse power is 
superior to human power both in speed and in endurance, 
but it also has its limits and often fails at important times. 

Then use was made of the wind, which, blowing against 
stretches of canvas, propelled vessels. Here was no human 
power to become wearied; no horse power to fail at the 
wrong time. Vessels need not stop at night in order to 
sleep, nor even at noon in order to take dinner. But the 
wind is fickle ; it does not always blow ; it frequently blows 
from the wrong direction; it often blows too much. Human 
power, horse power, wind power, each was insufficient or un- 
satisfactory, and the time was ripe for some power stronger 
and less fickle to produce more rapid transportation. 

When the necessity of a new power became great, the 
needed energy and a way to use it were soon found. Near 
the close of the eighteenth century a number of men, un- 
acquainted with each other's ideas, began to experiment with 
steam as a means for propelling vessels. Why had they not 
begun earlier? For two reasons. The demand for quicker 



TRAVEL — STEAMBOATS. 



209 



^-?L. 



water travel had but just commenced, and the fact that steam 
could practically be used as a motive power was only begin- 
ning to be understood. 

It so happened that James Watt's steam engine was per- 
fected just as the treaty of peace with Great Britain ac- 
knowleged the independ 
ence of the United States. 
Now American inventors 
were able to make use of 
the steam engine to aid 
travel and transportation. 
At once they began work. 
Samuel Morey built a 
steamboat on the upper 
Connecticut River; James 
Rumsey experimented on 
the Potomac; John Fitch 
on the Delaware, and Wil- 
liam Longstreet on the 
Savannah ; Oliver Evans 
was at work in Philadel- 
phia, and John Stevens on 
the Hudson. 

One of these boats used 
the steam engine to move oars ; another pumped water in at 
the bow and forced it out again at the stern; a third had a 
wheel in the stern ; and a fourth had a paddle wheel on each 
side. Some of the vessels used upright, and some hori- 
zontal engines. Most of these inventors succeeded in run- 
ning their boats against the tide or the current of rivers, and 
proved that steam could be thus used. Each may be said to 
have invented a steamboat. But these men were all without 
14 




FITCH'S STEAMBOAT. 



2IO AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

means; they did not succeed in awakening the interest of 
wealthy men ; and the public cared little about such inven- 
tions. Therefore each of these steamboats was given up in 
turn and soon forgotten ; the eighteenth century passed away, 
and no practical result had appeared. It is natural to have 
more interest in the account of an invention which proved of 
practical value than in the stories of even successful at- 
tempts which were given up almost as soon as made. 

Robert Fulton was born in Pennsylvania just as Watt 
began his study of the steam engine. Almost as soon as 
Watt had completed his improvements on the engine, Fulton 
came of age, and went to England to study painting with 
Benjamin West, the famous American artist. In the midst 
of his art studies he became interested in mechanical pur- 
suits. He attracted the attention of some English scientists, 
and, by their encouragement, he abandoned painting and 
devoted himself to inventing. But who knows how much 
assistance his skill in drawing may have been to him in his 
preparations of plans and models? 

Joel Barlow, a noted American poet, was then living in 
France, and upon his invitation Fulton spent several years 
in his home in Paris. Here he devoted his time to boats, as 
he had already done in London. His schemes were of vari- 
ous kinds. He planned diving boats, steamboats, and canal 
boats, and was particularly interested in a boat which he 
called a marine torpedo. This boat he planned to be used 
to injure vessels in naval warfare. For a time he neglected 
the steamboat, and bent every energy to persuade the French 
Government to adopt the torpedo. Afterward he urged his 
marine boats upon the English and American governments, 
but in vain. He did not realize the enormously greater 
future value of the steamboat. 



TRAVEL — STEAMBOATS. 2 I I 

In time, however, Fulton finished his plans, and a steam- 
boat was built for him upon the river Seine. The next step 
was to enlist the cooperation of some one with power and 
means by proving that the invention was valuable. Fulton 
accordingly sought to bring the boat to the attention of the 
French Emperor. He succeeded in awakening Napoleon's 
interest. It was just at the time that the emperor was plan- 
ning to take his great army across the Channel to attack Eng- 
land. He saw that steamboats, if of practical value, would 
be serviceable to him in these plans. Accordingly he directed 
a scientific committee to attend a public trial of the boat. 

A day was set for the examination. Fulton had worked 
steadily for weeks, seeking to make every part as perfect as 
possible. The night before the appointed day, Fulton re- 
tired for rest, but sleep would not come to his eyes. His 
thoughts were so completely fixed upon his invention and 
what the next day meant to him that he could not control 
them. Not until morning began to dawn did he catch a nap, 
and then only to be immediately awakened by a knock at his 
door. 

A messenger had come to tell him that his boat was at 
the bottom of the river. The iron machinery had proved too 
heavy for the little sixteen-foot boat, and had broken through. 
Fulton's hopes were at an end. Before he could build an- 
other boat and make another engine the opportunity would 
be past. His disappointment was intense. However, he did 
not despair, but was soon ready to try again. 

Doubtless the failure was a blessing in disguise. The 
boat was probably too small to make a successful trip. The 
next time he would have a larger vessel. Instead of again 
trying to arouse French interest, he decided to make the 
next experiment at home. 



2 12 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

Robert R. Livingston, our minister to France, who to- 
gether with James Monroe purchased for the United States 
the great province of Louisiana, had long been interested in 
the possibilities of steam navigation. He entered into Ful- 
ton's plans and assisted him in every way. Soon after the 
disaster on the Seine both men returned to America, and the 
next six months were spent in building a boat and in putting 
into it a steam engine which they had especially ordered in 
Birmingham, England. A grant had been obtained from 
the New York legislature which gave them the exclusive 
right to run steam vessels on any of the waters of the 
State. 

The new boat was a hundred and thirty feet in length, 
or eight times as long as that lost in the Seine. It was called 
the Clermont, after the country home of Livingston. It 
was a side-paddle steamboat, with wheels fifteen feet in diam- 
eter and four feet wide. The trial trip was announced for 
August 7th, 1807, and at one o'clock in the afternoon the 
Clermont stood at the wharf in New York ready for the 
journey. 

Was the trial to succeed or fail? To succeed, the Cler- 
mont must steam up the Hudson River at a speed of, at least, 
four miles an hour. The trip proposed was from New York 
to Albany, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, and 
return. This trip was regularly made by sailing packets, 
and the average time was four days. Could the Clermont 
reach Albany in thirty-seven hours, or a day and a half? 
Unfortunately, a north wind was blowing, which would 
greatly decrease the speed. 

Fulton and Livingston were confident that it could be 
done. The steamboat left the wharf and slowly sailed up the 
river. Soon the faults natural to a new invention began to 



TRAVEL — STEAMBOATS. 213 

show themselves. The rudder did not work as it ought ; the 
wheels were unprotected by a covering; the vessel sank too 
far in the water. But the trial, in spite of all the odds 
against it, was successful. The one hundred and fifty miles 
were made in thirty-two hours, with five hours to spare from 
the limit set. If we subtract the time spent in stops, but 
twenty- eight and a half hours were used, making an average 
of more than five miles an hour. 

The first long steamboat trip had been accomplished. 
The indifference of the public at once changed to enthu- 
siasmi. Fulton was immediately urged to make regular trips, 
and, although the Clermont needed many improvements, he 
consented. The next winter, however, the boat was re- 
moved from the river for repairs ; but in the spring regular 
trips were resumed, and the steamboat became a new and 
permanent means of transportation. 

There was abundant opportunity to improve the steam- 
boat and develop its use. At first Fulton's Clermont alone 
steamed up and down the Hudson River. Soon, however, 
other steamboats were built to run in opposition to the sail- 
ing packets. Steamers began to ply on Lake Champlain and 
on the Delaware River. Three years after the first voyage 
of the Clermont, a steamboat was making three trips a week 
from New York to New Brunswick, New Jersey; here the 
traveler took stage for Bordentown on the Delaware River, 
whence another boat carried him to Philadelphia. Two years 
later steam ferryboats ran between New York and the Jersey 
shore. 

The first river steamboat was launched at Pittsburg, and 
was sent down the Ohio and the Mississippi to New Orleans 
in 181 1. Three years later the y^tna steamed from Pitts- 
burg to New Orleans, and back to Louisville. The same 



214 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

year a steamboat was built on the Lakes to run from Buffalo 
to Detroit, and a company was organized to start a steamship 
line from New York to Charleston. Five years afterward 
the steamship Savannah, using both steam and sails, crossed 
the Atlantic Ocean. She made but slow time, and the great 
space required to hold the fuel left little room for freight. 
Year by year, however, improvements were made on the 
vessels and quicker time was the result. Finally, anthracite 
coal came into general use, and thirty years after the trial 
trip of the Clermont, the steamers Sirius and the Great West- 
ern began regular trips between Liverpool and New York. 
The day of steam navigation had come, and from that time 
on the vexatious delays due to fickle winds no longer need 
be a cause of trouble. 



CHAPTER V. 
CANALS. 

Ninety years ago, two brothers, James and John, found 
it necessary to make the long journey from their home in 
New York City to Kentucky. They had frequently traveled 
through the country, and were familiar with stages and 
packets. This time they proposed to make their first trip 
on the steamboat, since the Clermojtt was again making its 
regular runs. It was advertised to leave New York at one 
o'clock on Wednesday. The brothers felt no need of haste 
in their preparations for the journey, and it was nearly two 
o'clock before they came in sight of the wharf. Just then 
John made the remark that they were very foolish to arrive 
so early. 

" We shall have to wait an hour or two," he said ; " the boat 
won't be ready to start before three o'clock at the earliest." 

" I am not so sure," was the reply. " Perhaps the steam- 
boat will not be as late as the packets." 

When they reached the wharf, no steamboat was there. 
Far up the river they saw, slowly moving off in the distance, 
a vessel, which they knew must be the Clermont, from the 
line of smoke that lay behind it. Immediately they began to 
inquire what it meant and were told, " Oh ! that is one of Ful- 
ton's notions. He has given strict orders that the boat shall 
always leave the wharf exactly on advertised time." This 
was a novelty almost as great as the steamboat itself. Sail- 
ing vessels had been dependent upon the wind, and stages 



2l6 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

Upon the conditions of the roads and the weather; neither 
made any pretence of running upon schedule time. Fulton's 
idea of punctuality was new and caused much grumbling for 
a time ; but with the coming of the railroads it became an 
absolute necessity. 

What were the two men to do? But two things could be 
done. They might take passage on a packet, or wait for the 
next trip of the Clermont. They decided to wait, as they were 
anxious to try the steamboat ; they had had enough experi- 
ence with the slow sailing vessels, and their poor accommoda- 
tions. They did not permit themselves to be late a second 
time. In fact, the clocks had hardly struck twelve when they 
stepped aboard the Clermont. 

The hour before the departure of the boat was spent in 
examining it from stem to stern. The original Clermont had 
been greatly improved. The wheels were now properly pro- 
tected ; a rudder, specially adapted to the boat and the river, 
had been constructed. Most noticeable were the accommoda- 
tions for the passengers, which were almost elegant when 
compared with the poor quarters of the packets. In fact the 
Clermont had become " a floating palace, gay with ornamental 
painting, gilding, and polished woods." 

At one o'clock sharp the boat quietly left the wharf. The 
wind was blowing freshly down the river and the tide vras 
going out. A packet started at the same moment from a 
neighboring pier. The steamboat at once turned its prow 
up the stream, but the packet headed for the Jersey shore, 
as it could sail against the wind only by making long tacks. 
This greatly increased the distance it had to travel, and be- 
fore sunset the Clermont had left the packet many miles 
behind. 

The next morning everything was still going smoothly 



TRAVEL — CANALS. 



217 



when the two passengers saw a little way ahead another 
packet, which had left New York before the steamboat. 
This sloop was making tacks like those they had watched the 
previous afternoon, and the Clermont was rapidly gaining on 
it. Suddenly John exclaimed, "What are they doing? Are 
they trying to run us down ? " It was evident that the packet 
was coming straight for the steamboat; but the captain of 

the Clermont shut 
off steam at once 
and the packet 
passed its bow with- 
out doing harm. 
Soon a sloop 



was met coming 
down the river. 
Again came the ex- 
clamation from 
John, "They are 
surely trying to run 




COLLISION OF THK CLERMQi^T AND THE SLOOP. 



into us! " He had 
hardly spoken when the crash came ; the packet struck the 
wheel box, tore it open, and then, sliding along the side of 
the steamboat, passed away down the river. On inquiry 
John ascertained that this was merely an illustration of the 
envy of the owners of packets, who feared that they would 
lose all their business. No serious damage was done, how- 
ever, and the steamboat proceeded on its way. 

The Clermont arrived at Albany at seven o'clock Thurs- 
day evening and the brothers spent the night at an inn. 
The next morning, after an early breakfast, a stage was 
taken which in a few hours carried them to Schenectady. 
This part of the journey was quickly made, as the road was 



2l8 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

one of the best in the country. On reaching Schenectady 
the travelers learned that they must wait till the next noon 
to take a boat up the Mohawk River. The hours slowly 
dragged along, another night was spent at an inn, and about 
three o'clock the next afternoon the slow trip up the Mohawk 
began. Two days later they reached Utica, and another stage 
took them, the next day, to Rome. From this village two 
days' sail carried them across the Oneida Lake, and down the 
Oswego River to Oswego on the banks of Lake Ontario. 

After a delay of thirty-six hours a lake packet was found 
ready for them, which in time arrived at Lewiston at the 
mouth of the Niagara River, and so on they went, by land to 
Buffalo, by water to Erie, by land again to one of the branch- 
es of the Alleghany River, and down this to Pittsburg. 
From Pittsburg one of the flat-bottomed Western river boats, 
borne along by the current, conveyed them to Louisville, at 
the Falls of the Ohio. 

Thus was made, in several weeks, a trip from New York 
to Louisville, which to-day requires scarcely more than 
twenty-four hours. Ten times had changes been made in 
the conveyances used. A steamboat, river rowboats, lake 
packets, Western flatboats and stages, were all needed, and 
nights and days even were spent at inns. Slow and cum- 
brous was travel in those days and very expensive. There was 
little traveling for pleasure, and only the most important busi- 
ness was worth the hardships and discomforts of such travel. 

If it was costly for passengers to travel, it was even more 
expensive to carry freight. Enormous charges were placed 
upon all transportation of goods. New and better roads were 
being built in all directions, but these did little to reduce the 
cost of transporting goods. The cheapest routes continued 
to be by the rivers, as the expense of building good roads and 



TRAVEL — CANALS. 219 

keeping them in repair added to freight charges. The 
charges for freight transportation were so great that it pre- 
vented entirely the moving of many goods. 

The people in Pennsylvania desired the salt which was 
obtained in New York, but it cost $2.50 a bushel to carry 
salt three hundred miles. Citizens of Philadelphia would 
have purchased flour which was raised about the sources of 
the Susquehanna River had it not cost $1.50 a barrel to carry 
it to Philadelphia. Hundreds of families were weekly mov- 
ing westward into the new country across the Alleghany 
Mountains; they could not afford to take their household 
goods with them. The freight charges from New York to 
Buffalo were $ 1 20 a ton ; from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, $125. 

Something new in the line of transportation was needed ; 
some way by which freight could be carried at less expense. 
Private companies w^ere building new toll roads — but these 
did not accomplish the purpose. Different States expended 
money in improving the highways, and still the expense of 
transportation was enormous. The national Government 
also took part in the w^ork and constructed a highway from 
Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, on the Ohio River — 
but this was merely a single road over the mountains, and 
freight charges were as high as ever. 

What could be done? Of course the roads everywhere 
must be improved and new ones built — all of which would 
take many years. But was there not some way to avoid car- 
rying so much freight in wagons drawn by horses? Wher- 
ever there were rivers these could be used. Was it possible 
to make rivers, or at least to make water-ways, upon which 
boats might be used? The people of the United States began 
to talk of canals, and soon enthusiasm for canal building be- 
came universal. 



220 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

What is a canal? It is a trench cut in the ground, filled 
with -water deep enough for a well-laden boat, and wide 
enough for boats to pass each other. On one bank is a path, 
called the towpath, upon which horses or mules travel, pull- 
ing a canal boat behind them by means of a long rope. In 
most canals it is found necessary to lift the boats over higher 
land or up to a higher level. This is done by locks, which are 
built where the two levels of the canal come together. These 
locks are shut off from each part of the canal by gates. 
When the lower gates are shut and the upper gates open, 
water is let into the lock from the upper canal until on a 
level with it. Then a canal boat from the upper canal enters 
the lock. The upper gates are closed, the lower gates opened, 
and the water runs out of the lock. The boat, remaining on 
top of the water, sinks to the lower level and is ready to pro- 
ceed on its course. In traveling the other way the process is 
turned about. The boat enters the lock and rises with the 
water which is let in from above until it is on the upper 
level. 

Canals, with their locks, are simple and easily built. 
The expense lies mainly in digging the trench. When the 
canal is once finished the cost of running is very slight, and 
freight can be carried much more cheaply than over roads, 
or even by the natural rivers. Canal travel is very slow, 
however, as the boat is drawn by a horse at a slow walk. 
Therefore a canal is used, for the most part, to carry freight, 
especially freight not very perishable. Garden vegetables, 
fruit, and meats, for example, are not carried on canals to 
any great distance ; on the other hand, the length of time used 
in conveying salt, or flour, or household goods, is not of so 
much importance. 

Plans for canals sprang up all at once throughout the 



TRAVEL — CANALS. 



221 



country. The Middlesex canal in Massachusetts and the 
Blackstone canal between Providence and Worcester were 
among the first built. The Delaware and Hudson canal in 
New York, and the Chesapeake and Delaware in Maryland 
were of early importance. In time nearly every Atlantic 
State had one or more canals as aids to transportation. Many 

of them were of additional 



importance because they 
connected neighboring 
bays, and could furnish 
opportunities for water 
travel, even when the har- 
bors might be blockaded in 
time of war. 

The greatest and by far 
the most important is the 
Erie canal, which connects 
Buffalo on Lake Erie with 
Albany on the Hudson 
River. This canal was due 
to the energy and persis- 
tence of Governor De Witt 
Clinton, who dug the first 
shovelful of earth in 1817, and made the first trip over the 
completed canal in 1825. There was great opposition to 
building this canal at the expense of the State, and the nick- 
name of "Clinton's Big Ditch " was frequently applied to it. 
Governor Clinton was wiser, however, than his opponents. 
Every cent spent on this canal, which is 363 miles long, 40 
feet wide, and 4 feet deep, was wisely spent. On the day 
that it was finished the great prosperity of New York City 
began. A large part of the trade and commerce between the 




-T=^ 



THE ERIE CANAL. 



222 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

East and the West was carried over the Erie canal, because 
it furnished the cheapest route. Freight charges between 
Buffalo and Albany fell at once to less than one-quarter their 
former rates, and continued to decrease until they became 
less than $io a ton. 

Thus far had travel and transportation improved. From 
walking, horseback riding, and rowboats, slow changes had 
led to stages, packets, steamboats, and canals. From the 
simple Indian trail, like the Bay Path, had grown up the 
great highways, like the National Road. From slow and 
difficult journeys between neighboring towns, traveling had 
become easy from Maine to Florida, and from the Atlantic 
Ocean to the Mississippi River. Was there any chance for 
further improvement? 



CHAPTER VI. 
RAILROADS. 

Up to this time progress had been more marked upon the 
water than upon the land. On the land travelers were still 
limited to human power and horse power. On the water, 
however, not only human power and wind were used, but 
also horse power and even steam power. The steamboat 
was thought to be the most rapid means of transit possible. 
No energy was known greater than that of steam ; therefore 
no new source of power was expected. 

If steam could aid water navigation, could it not be used 
in land travel? This question was ever present in the minds 
of inventors, mechanics, and travelers on both sides of the 
ocean. Little by little an answer was obtained, and the field 
of steam was enlarged. Even before Fulton's trial trip, the 
first step in the direction of the railroad was taken, though 
steam had nothing to do with this first practical experiment. 

The city of Boston was built upon three hills, two of 
which have now been almost entirely mbved away. Upon 
the third, called Beacon Hill, was built the State House. 
Early in this century the top of this hill was lowered by car- 
rying away the gravel. For this purpose a tramway was 
built. This consisted of two sets of rails or tracks from the 
top to the bottom of the hill, upon which cars were used. 
The full car on one track ran down of its own weight, pulling 
up the empty car on the other track. This was the first use 
of rails in this country. 



224 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

The first permanent tramway was built in Pennsylvania. 
Thomas Leifer owned a stone quarry about three-quarters of 
a mile from the nearest wharf on the Delaware River. He 
desired to carry his stone to tide water more easily than 
by the ordinary methods. Accordingly he built a tramway 
from the quarry to the wharf, and placed upon the tracks an 
ordinary wagon. To this he attached horses and had what 
we should call a horse car. The rails made a smooth road 
over which his horses could draw five tons as easily as one 
ton over the common roads. This tram was used regularly 
for eighteen years. 

One-half of the steam railroad had now been invented. 
The tramway was the railroad — now steam must be applied. 
That was all. But that was not so easy as it would seem 
now. Year after year passed and no one attempted it. 
Doubtless many persons felt certain that the steam railroads 
were coming some time and that they would be of value, just 
as to-day man)^ people expect that travel through the air is 
coming some time. At the same time there wxre many who 
did not believe that steam could be used for land travel at 
all ; while others did not care to have it come for fear that 
travel would be made too speedy. 

One of the leading English magazines took occasion to 
express its opinion concerning a proposed railway : " What 
can be more absurd and ridiculous than the prospect held out 
of locomotives traveling tivice as fast as stage coaches! We 
should as soon expect the people of Woolwich to suffer them- 
selves to be fired off upon one of Congreve's rockets as trust 
themselves to the mercy of a machine going at such a rate. 
We trust that Parliament will, in all railways it may sanction, 
limit the speed to ciglit or nme miles an hour, which is as great 
as can be ventured on with safety." What would this writer 



TRAVEL — RAILROADS. 22$ 

say to the safety of the trains of to-day, as they make forty, 
fifty, sixty, and even seventy miles an hour? 

Many of the inventions which have done the most for 
mankind have been made by Americans, but we owe the lo- 
comotive to an Englishman. George Stephenson from early 
boyhood devoted himself to the study of engines and machin- 
ery. When but thirteen years of age he assisted his father 
in the care of an engine at a coal mine near Newcastle. 
Working by day as an engineman, and studying by night in 
a night school, he prepared himself for his future work. 
He won the confidence of his employers, especially that of 
Lord Ravensworth, who supplied him with funds to build a 
"traveling engine" to run on the rails of the tramroad be- 
tween the mines and the shipping port, nine miles distant. 
July 25th, 1 8 14, Stephenson made a successful trip with his 
locomotive, "My Lord," which pulled the coal cars at the 
rate of four miles an hour. 

Stephenson felt that this locomotive was but a beginning. 
He told his friends that " there was no limit to the speed of 
such an engine, if the works could be made to stand." He 
was still pursuing his studies and experiments when he was 
appointed engineer of a proposed railroad between Stockton 
and Darlington. The directors of the road had planned to 
pull their cars by horses, but they were won over by Stephen- 
son to agree to try an engine. Eleven years after the trial 
trip of his first engine, Stephenson was ready to exhibit a 
locomotive upon a railroad joining two towns for the purpose 
of transporting passengers and freight. 

A short time before the trial trip, Stephenson made a 
prediction concerning the future of his invention. " I ven- 
ture to tell you," he said, "that I think that you will live 
to see the day when railways will supersede almost all other 
15 



226 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

methods of conveyance in this country — when mail coaches 
will go by railway, and railroads will become the great high- 
ways for the king and all his subjects. The time is coming 
when it will be cheaper for a working man to travel on a rail- 
way than to walk on foot. I know that there are great and 
almost insurmountable difficulties to be encountered, but 
what I have said will come to pass as sure as you now hear 
me." 

The Stockton and Darlington Railway was three years in 
process of construction, and the day of its opening, Septem- 
ber 27th, 1825, was an important one in the history of travel. 
Imagine that first train load — the locomotive, guided by Ste- 
phenson himself, six freight cars, a car carrying " distin- 
guished guests," twenty-one coal cars crammed with passen- 
gers, and six more freight cars all loaded. Ahead of the 
train, or procession, as it might be called, rode a man on 
horseback, carrying a flag bearing the motto, " The private 
risk is the public benefit." When the train started, crowds of 
people ran along by its side, for a time easily keeping up 
with it. Finally, however, Stephenson called to the horse- 
man to get out of the way and, putting on steam, drove the 
engine at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. The future of 
the locomotive was assured. 

Americans were ready for new methods of traveling. 
Three years after the opening of the first passenger steam- 
railway in England, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad be- 
gan to construct a line from Baltimore westward, and in 
two years fourteen miles were opened to travel. For a 
year, however, horses were used as motive power; in 
1 83 1, the road advertised for locomotives. Meanwhile an 
engine, called the " Stombridge Lion," was brought over 
from England, in 1829, and used on a line built by the 



TRAVEL — RAILROADS. 



227 




OLD-STYLE RAILROAD TRAIN. 



Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. It was found to 
be too heavy and was abandoned. The second locomotive 
used in this country, "The Best Friend of Charleston," 
was built in New York City, and was run on the South 
Carolina Railroad. 

The locomotive and the railroad had come, such as they 
were. The locomotive had its boiler and its smokestack, its 
cylinders and driving wheels ; but it had no cab for the engi- 
neer and the fireman, and 



no brake to stop the train. 
The tender was but a flat 
car, carrying fuel and 
water. The cars were 
merely stagecoaches made 
to run on rails, and in no 
way were the passengers 
protected from the smoke and cinders of the burning wood. 
Yet this poor, inconvenient railroad was a great advance 
in itself, and it foretold greater advances in the days to 
come. 

In 1835, five years after the opening of the first steam 
railroad in the United States, there were twenty-three 
roads and over a thousand miles of track. After 1835, an 
average of nearly four hundred miles was built yearly until 

1848. From that time until the beginning of the Civil War, 
railroad construction proceeded with great rapidity, nearly 
two thousand miles of railroad being built each year. In 

1849, a continuous line of railroad was completed between 
New York and Boston. Two years later two distinct lines 
were finished, connecting New York and Buffalo. At the 
end of another two years, through connection was had be- 
tween New York and Chicago. At the same time railroads 



228 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

were being built in all sections east of the Mississippi 
River. 

After peace was restored in 1865, came a great period of 
railroad building. During ten years the number of miles of 
railroad more than doubled, nearly four thousand miles being 
built each year. This was the period when the continuous 
lines, which had already reached the Missouri River, were 
continued across the continent. After five years of labor the 
Union Pacific Railroad, starting at Omaha, Nebraska, met at 
Ogden, Utah, the Central Pacific, which had been built from 
Sacramento, California. May loth, 1869, the last spike was 
driven and the Pacific coast was bound to the Atlantic by 
bands of steel. 

Since the completion of the Union and Central Pacific 
railroads, four other through lines have been constructed 
across the Rocky Mountains, within the territory of the Unit- 
ed States, and one in Canada. It is now possible to go from 
ocean to ocean in less than five days, and to have such a 
choice of routes that neither the cold of winter nor the heat 
of summer need be troublesome. 

At last the limit of rapid traveling seems to have been 
reached. Walking and horseback riding are indulged in 
only for pleasure and health ; stagecoaches are used only for 
short lines where the railroad has not yet come ; but all the 
long-distance traveling is now done behind the locomotive. 
Journeys of weeks have become trips of a few days, days 
have been lessened to hours, and the country has become 
knit together by rapid transit. Is there a chance for further 
improvement? 



CHAPTER VII. 
MODERN WATER TRAVEL. 

James Greenleaf arrived in Duluth, one bright June 
day, four hundred and five years after the discovery of 
America. For nearly forty years he had been a missionary 
among the Indians of the British Northwest, but he had 
finally been persuaded to take a well-earned rest. Leaving 
his little settlement of red men, and taking a canoe, he had 
paddled up stream, carried his canoe over a portage, and 
paddled down a river until he reached Lake Superior, w^here 
a small sailboat had taken him to the flourishing city at the 
western end of the lake. 

At the hotel he found, as he expected, his nephew, Henry 
Towne. Mr. Towne was a commercial traveler, always " on 
the road," as he would say, for a large furniture establish- 
ment in New York. In a letter to his uncle he had stated 
that business would call him to Minnesota at just that time, 
and that he would make the journey with his uncle from 
Duluth to New York. 

The next day the two men started. The nephew had 
made all the necessary arrangements, having purchased 
tickets and engaged staterooms on the line of steamboats 
that connect Duluth with Buffalo. The first sight of the 
steamboat caused Mr. Greenleaf to exclaim at its size. 

" It is not much like the steamboat that I took on the 



2 30 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

Hudson in the spring of 1856," he said. "I imagine, 
however, that I shall see greater differences than this, the 
further I go." 

As the two men made a tour through the steamboat, the 
older gave expression to his thoughts in many ways. 

" We did not have the saloon in those old days, when I 
did my traveling. Whenever we did not care to remain on 
the open deck there was no parlor to which we could go. No 
orchestra helped to while away our hours. No piano or organ 
added the charm of music to our journey." 

" But you had a state room to which you could retire," re- 
plied his companion, as they came to the rooms numbered 240 
and 242, which numbers were on the keys that they had 
obtained at the purser's. 

" Yes," said his uncle, "a. tiny room, six feet by six, with 
narrov/ little berths, and two small stools. I can assure you 
that it was nothing like these comfortable sleeping rooms, 
brilliantly lighted, with regulation beds, convenient toilet 
arrangements, and carpeted floors. However, I do not imag- 
ine that the machinery will let me sleep any better now than 
then." 

The next morning, as the travelers went down to break- 
fast, the younger man asked, " Well, uncle, how did you 
sleep?" 

"Never better," was the reply. "I tell you, Henry, I 
want to look at the machinery, after breakfast. It must be 
somewhat unlike the engine of my day, or the boat, large 
though it is, would have more of a jar." 

When the two men stood above the mammoth engine and 
noted the smooth working parts, the regular and even motion 
of the great piston rods in and out of the cylinders, the quiet- 
ness and gentleness with which each movement took place, 



TRAVEL — MODERN WATER TRAVEL. 23 I 

the uncle said : " More improvements have been made on the 
engine of forty years ago than had then been made on that 
of the Clermont. And we used to think that the steamboats 
of our day were as much superior to Fulton's boat as his was 
ahead of Fitch's steam-moved paddles." 

We cannot take note of all the novel sensations that came 
to the old missionary, nor can we pause to relate many of the 
conversations between the two men. We can record a few 
only of the greater changes which were discussed as they 
continued their journey, and mention some of the comments 
called forth by the scenes through which Mr. Greenleaf was 
passing. 

On the afternoon of the second day the steamboat passed 
through the locks of the canal at Sault Ste. Marie. 

"Uncle," remarked the drummer, " how does this canal 
compare with the Delaware and Hudson canal, with which 
you were familiar? " 

" How can they be compared? " replied his uncle. " That 
was a long trench, hardly more than a scratch on the surface 
of the ground. This is broad and deep, though not long." 

"Yes," said Mr. Towne, "but there is no new princi- 
ple here. This canal is somewhat wider and deeper ; its locks 
and gates are somewhat larger. Still it is only a canal." 

" But we could not make such a hole in our day. We 
could not afford to hire men enough to dig it ; it must have 
required many years to make this excavation." 

" Oh ; this canal was not made as large as this when it 
was first built. It has been enlarged since. But you know 
that we do not do all our digging now by hand. Steam 
shovels do the work for us. That gives us a great advantage 
over the day laborer with his pick and shovel." 

"What strikes me as most noticeable," said Mr. Green- 



2 32 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

leaf, "is the number of vessels waiting on both sides of the 
lock. What causes such a crowd to-day, particularly? " 

" This is no unusual number," replied Mr. Towne. " You 
do not realize what a traffic there is on the great lakes. It 
is stated that the tonnage passing through this canal is 
greater than that through any other strait on the face of the 
globe. This growth is very recent and very rapid." 

" But what causes the traffic and where are all the vessels 
going? " asked the missionary. 

"The great bulk of the freight," answered the younger 
man, "is grain from the Northwest, and iron, copper, coal, 
and lumber, now being obtained in vast quantities south of 
Lake Superior. So long as the steamboats can carry freight 
more cheaply than the steam cars, grain and ores will take 
this route. Sometime we shall have canals large enough for 
ocean steamers, which will connect the great lakes with the 
Atlantic Ocean. Then we can load our freight at Chicago or 
Duluth and not change it until it is unloaded at some Eng- 
lish or European port." 

The next day, as the steamboat was lying at the wharf 
at Detroit, conversation was turned to the great ferryboats 
plying across the river. 

" I notice great changes in the steam ferries, since last I 
crossed the North River at New York," remarked Mr. Green- 
leaf. 

"Yes," was the reply, "but you see only improvements. 
The ferryboats are larger and you might almost say clum- 
sier; that is all." 

"I do not think so," returned the missionary. "There 
must be some new invention to enable entire trains, with 
cars filled with passengers, to be carried across such a river 
as this." 



TRAVEL — MODERN WATER TRAVEL. 233 

"Of course," said his nephew, "the boat must be strong 
and large. However, the ferry docks have been improved. 
Now, when the boat is fastened, the wharf can be raised and 
lowered, until it is exactly on the level of the boat. Then 
not only passengers, but wagons and steam cars can pass 
from one to the other almost without knowledge of the 
change." 

" How far have these cars come that I see on the ferry? " 

"That," said the drummer, "is one of the through trains 
from Montreal to Chicago. The ferryboat next beyond, 
going the other way, bears a train containing cars bound for 
New York and Boston." 

"Well, well! This is convenient," said the missionary. 
" The passengers are saved much trouble by not being re- 
quired to gather up all their traveling bundles, leave the cars 
for the boat, and the boat for a new set of cars. We should 
have thought this a great gain, forty years ago." 

" But do you realize what an inconvenience this ferry 
causes? Much time is wasted, not only because of the slow 
movement of the boats, but also from the necessary delays in 
embarking and disembarking the cars." 

"Yes, I suppose so. But what would you do? Here is 
the river and it is too wide for a bridge." 

"Oh, no!" replied Mr. Towne. "The bridge could be 
built, but it would be expensive and would not pay. But 
what do you think of a tunnel? " 

"A tunnel? What do you mean? " said the other man, 
with a touch of surprise in his voice for the first time. "A 
tunnel? Where? Not under the river? 

"Yes," answered his nephew, "a tunnel under the river. 
There is one, a few miles north, at Port Huron. There the 
train, instead of being delayed hours by the ferry, passes at 



234 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



almost full speed directly under the river, proceeding on its 
way as though the river were not there." 

*' Is not that something new? " asked Mr. Greenleaf. 
" Yes. It was opened only a half-dozen years ago. It is 
said to be the greatest river tunnel in the world. It is a lit- 
tle over a mile long and is fifteen feet below the bed of the 

St. Clair River. Half a 
mile of it is directly un- 
der the water, yet no one 
passing through it would 
realize that it was differ- 
ent from any one of the 
hundreds of tunnels 
through which the rail- 
roads of this country 
pass. It is but a natural 
following out of such 
tunnels as the five-mile 
tunnel under the Hoosac Mountains in Massachusetts, or the 
three-quarter-mile tunnels in Jersey City, or the score of 
tunnels on the line of the Southern Railway over the Blue 
Ridge in North Carolina. It is a great tunnel to-day, of 
course, but when the North River tunnel is finished, from 
New York to Jersey City, this will be of little account in 
comparison." 

Detroit was soon left. Lake Erie was reached, and night 
came on. The next morning the steamboat reached its 
journey's end at Buffalo. Our friends hastened across the 
city and were soon seated in a sleeper, on the train for New 
York. 




A RIVER TUNNEL. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MODERN LAND TRAVEL. 

Soon after the train had started from the Buffalo station 
conversation began between Mr. Greenleaf and his nephew. 
" The steam is the same as in my day," remarked the former; 
"the steam pushes the piston in just the same way; there is 
no change in this direction. But all else is new." 

"Yes," said the drummer, "you must see great changes; 
tell me some of them." 

" Very well," was the reply. " The most noticeable thing 
about a railroad train used to be the jerking motion. We 
seemed to be going ' bump-i-ty-bump ' all the time ; and start- 
ing and stopping a train would often throw us off our feet." 

"Various improvements," said Mr. Towne, "have helped 
to produce this easy-riding motion. The roadbeds are laid 
with much greater care^long experience and numerous ex- 
periments have provided us with the best rails; but more 
especially the absence of jar is due to steel springs, and also 
to the breaks and couplers. When one car was attached to 
another by two bolts thrust through a ring, nothing was firm, 
as the bolts would slide forward and back with every motion 
of the car. The new automatic couplers hold the two cars 
more firmly together. Again, the old hand brakes have been 
replaced by the automatic air brake." 

"Yes, I have heard of that, but I do not understand it. 
Can you explain it to me? " 



2 2,6 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

"I think so. George Westinghouse, Jr., about thirty 
years ago, took out a patent for the air brake. This alone 
has been enough to make him famous, although he has twelve 
hundred patents issued in his name. The Westinghouse air 
brake is now almost universally used. Some of the surplus 
steam in the locomotive pumps air into tanks in the cars, 
which air presses upon a piston, that moves a rod against the 
brakes. Thus the brakes can be held against the wheels 
with great force at the will of the engineer." 

" Well, the next thing that I notice," said the missionary, 
"is the improved comfort of the passengers. The cinders 
filled the cars in the old days; the air within was always 
bad; the candles gave more smoke than light; and in win- 
ter, the stoves at the end of the cars gave no heat in the 
center." 

"Yes, all that is changed," replied the younger man. 
" Spark arresters keep out the cinders ; the overhead ventila- 
tors give us good air; bright light, almost like that of day, 
surrounds us in the evening; and, when wanted, the engine 
supplies steam in pipes running the entire length of the car, 
which gives even and ample heat." 

"This car is wider than ours used to be, is it not? " que- 
ried Mr. Greenleaf . 

"Yes," was the reply. " When the first Pullman sleeping 
car, the * Pioneer, ' was run on the Chicago and Alton Rail- 
road, it was wider and higher than the ordinary coaches. 
Several bridges had to be raised to allow the car to pass un- 
der ; and all the station platforms were altered to permit it to 
pass. Since then, as Pullmans and Wagners have come into 
use on so many roads, many changes in bridges have been 
found necessary, and station platforms have almost univer- 
sally been cut down to the ground." 



TRAVEL — MODERN LAND TRAVEL. 



237 



"Did I understand you to say that this is a sleeper?" 
asked Mr. Greenleaf. " Our sleeping cars, few and far be- 
tween as they were, had berths or bunks three tiers high, 
fitted in on each side of the car, making it useless except to 
sleep in." 

"That was the great feature of Mr. Pullman's invention," 
was the reply. " He saw that few railroad companies would 
care to go to the ex- 
pense of running cars 
which could only be 
used for sleeping pur- 
poses. He was famil- 
iar with the ' old-fash- 
ioned, stuffy cars, 
where men sat in stiff- 
backed seats and dozed 
and yawned and waited 
for morning. By put- 
ting people to sleep 
this wide-awake man 
made a fortune.' You 
are sitting on the bed 
now. But here comes 

the porter to make up the berths next to us. The lady 
wishes to put her little boy to sleep." 

With much interest Mr. Greenleaf watched the porter 
make a sleeping room out of a sitting room. In a trice the 
cushions in the seats and backs were twisted about and laid 
from seat to seat, making a bed. With a jump, the porter 
stood on the arm of the seat, and turned a knob in the roof. 
Down came another bed, a few feet above the first. From 
this was pulled a triangular board which was placed between 




A PULLMAN SLEEPER. 



238 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

the beds and the next seats. Sheets, blankets, and pillows, 
which had been shut up in the roof, were soon properly 
spread out, and two good beds were the result. Curtains 
were found above the upper bed, which, hung upon poles, 
shut the beds off from the car aisle. Behind these the moth- 
er undressed her child and put him to bed. 

Just at this moment a man went through the car crying 
"First call for dinner." Mr. Towne immediately jumped 
to his feet and said, " Let us go and get good seats." 

"You have forgotten your hat, Henry," said his uncle. 

"I don't need it. Come, hurry," said Henry. 

Perplexed, the old man followed his nephew through 
three cars to the dining car, where they were soon seated 
at a little table, in front of a large window, from which 
everything they passed could be seen. It is not neces- 
sary to describe the dining room, for it was merely a 
well-furnished restaurant. The men ordered what they 
desired, and settled back to wait until their dinner was 
brought on. 

" How is it, Henry, that we did not feel the wind as we 
passed from car to car? You hurried me so fast that I did 
not have time to notice." 

"Don't you see," said the drummer, "how attaching a 
dining car to a train required another change also? There 
used to be a rule of every railroad company forbidding the 
passengers to go from car to car while the train was in mo- 
tion. When the company put on the ' diner,' it invited the 
people to break its own rule. So vestibule cars came next. 
Side doors are built on the car platforms and with these 
closed the regular car doors can be left open. Thus one can 
walk the entire length of the train, through sleeper, parlor 
car, dining car, smoking saloon, library, bath room, barber 



TRAVEL — MODERN LAND TRAVEL. 



239 



shop, and writing room, without once going out of doors. 
This is a modern vestibule train." 

One more interesting discussion took place the next 
morning as they were nearing New York City. 

"Tell me something about modern bridges," said Mr. 
Greenleaf. 

" Oh ! I am afraid that is too long a story to tell during 
the time that we have left. There seems to be no limit 
to the engineering skill of 
to-day. The world-famous 
structures are being sur- 
passed every little while by 
new ones. To-morrow you 
must see the Brooklyn 
Bridge. We have supposed 
that this great suspension 
bridge with its sixteen hun- 
dred feet from tower to 
tower was about the limit. 
But the cantilever bridge 
over the Forth in Scotland 

has a span more than a hundred feet longer than the East 
River bridge. When the North River bridge is built to 
Jersey City, with its proposed span of three thousand feet, 
these other great bridges will be small in comparison. 

" Our bridges are mostly of steel rather than wood nowa- 
days," he continued. "Since the Portage viaduct on the 
Erie road, which was eight hundred feet long and two hun- 
dred and thirty feet above the river, and contained a million 
and a half feet of lumber, was wholly burned in 1875, wood- 
en bridges have usually been but temporary affairs. In these 
days of frequent trains, the engineer's skill is needed on the 




BROOKLYN BRIDGE. 



240 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

shorter bridges as well as on these enormotis structures. Iron 
towers were put in place of stone towers, and iron beams in 
place of wooden ones, at the Niagara Suspension Bridge, 
without interfering with the trains. I read the other day 
how a new iron bridge took the place of an old wooden one. 
It was built across the river by the side of the railroad track ; 
during the night, when there was less travel than during the 
daytime, the old bridge was moved off, the new one took its 
place, and in a few minutes trains were running over it. 
Whatever engineering work is needed nowadays, some one 
will soon be found prepared to provide it." 

At last the train entered the long cut and series of tun- 
nels, which finally brought it to the Grand Central station on 
Forty-Second Street, New York City. Hurried along by the 
crowd, the aged sightseer hardly had an opportunity to make a 
remark about the immensity and grandeur of the brick station. 

" But this station is poor and far behind the times," said 
Mr. Towne. " You should see some of the more modern 
ones that have recently been erected, or wait for the new New 
York station, which must soon be built. But let us hasten; 
I want to get home." 

The young drummer, accustomed to travel of all kinds, 
familiar with crowds, and wont to make his way anywhere, 
did not realize that his companion was having difficulty in 
keeping up with him as he hastened along the street. Re- 
ceiving no answer to a question that he asked, he glanced 
around to find that his uncle was not with him. Inwardly 
accusing himself of remissness in forgetting his companion's 
lack of experience, he turned and rapidly retraced his steps. 
He found his uncle standing on a corner, not daring to cross 
the street; to the relief of the latter, he decided to take a 
horse car across town. 



TRAVEL — MODERN LAND TRAVEL. 24 1 

Leaving the car at Sixth Avenue, the two men climbed 
the stairs to the elevated road. They had hardly purchased 
their tickets when a train drew up at the little station and a 
minute afterward they were off for Harlem. The horse-car 
ride, followed by that on the elevated road, started a discus- 
sion concerning street-car traffic. The horse car was remem- 
bered by the old missionary, who remarked that it came be- 
fore the steam railroad. 

Mr. Towne replied, "Yes. But its day is nearly over. 
New York City does not seem to have fully outgrown this 
slow street travel, but elsewhere more rapid transit is the 
rule. New York is coming to it, however. The elevated 
roads cannot carry all the travel — the horse cars are too slow 
— the size of the city demands something more than we now 
have." 

" What do you expect will be done?" asked Mr. Green- 
leaf. 

" We shall have to build a tunnel, an underground rail- 
way, a subway. Of course our roads must be either above 
ground, on the ground level, or below ground. The elevated 
roads have shown themselves to be unpleasant and annoying. 
It is not agreeable to look into the upper-story windows of 
dwellings, nor do people enjoy living on streets w^here the 
elevated road runs. Rapid transit is impossible in the 
street, where cross streets continually delay the cars, and 
where wagons and carriages of all sorts are regularly pass- 
ing. The subway is the best method, the only decent way 
left open." 

" Would not such a tunnel be 'dark and damp, dirty and 
unhealthy in every sense? " asked his uncle. 

"Oh I no," was the reply. "Boston has recently com- 
pleted a subway, something like a mile and a half long, with 
16 



242 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 




two branches, which has proved its great advantages. Shel- 
tered in winter, cool in summer, never blocked by teams nor 
interfered with by snow or ice, brilliantly lighted, with air 
wholesome and dry, and less liable to accidents than any 

other device yet test- 
ed, the Boston Sub- 
way is a great suc- 
cess. 

" Did you say that 
there was no smoke ?" 
again asked Mr. 
Greenleaf. 

" No smoke at all. 
The cars are run by 
electricity, and cin- 
ders are therefore 
entirely absent," 
"Are electric cars coming into general use?" was the 
next question. 

"Yes; throughout the country," replied Mr. Towne. 
" New York even now has its electric roads up town. Horse 
cars have been replaced by electric cars in almost every city. 
Cable cars are used in some places, but the electric is pre- 
ferred. The last few years have seen a wonderful develop- 
ment in electricity in every way, but in no respect greater 
than in the increase of electric railways. For shorter lines 
they are competing with the steam cars, and seem to be win- 
ning the day. Some steam roads are equipping their lines 
for electric service, and report successful results so far as 
tried. Whether the electric car will wholly replace the 
steam car, time only will tell." 

" What a relief it must be to ride in a street car and not 



THE BOSTON SUBWAY. 



MODERN LAND TRAVEL. 



243 



be obliged to pity the poor horses as they tug and strain to 
pull the heavy loads! " added the old missionary. 

''You know, I suppose," replied the drummer, "that not 
only from the street cars, but in other ways the horse is being 
retired. The bicycle has supplanted the horse and buggy 
for use in thousands of families, besides being where horses 
could never be afforded. And now we have automobiles, 
or horseless carriages, run by gasoline, naphtha, or electric 



I ft - . 






■* .'"^^ ~-v -, 



Pi 















\^^ 






-^ 



ELECTRIC CAR, NEW YORK CITY. 



motors. These are expensive, and comparatively few can 
yet afford them for private use. They are being used to a 
considerable extent in large cities, especially here in New 
York, for public service or for the delivery of goods from our 
large stores. But the expenses will gradually lessen, and 
perhaps the day when the horse is to rest has begun." 

"All this is wonderful," remarked his uncle. "We may 
walk still, if we wish. We may ride a horse or drive a car- 



244 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

riage. We may take the stagecoach, or a private coach, or 
tally-ho. We may journey across the continent in palace 
steam cars. We may ride through a city on horse cars, or 
cable cars, or electric cars. We may travel on elevated 
tracks or underground. We may pedal our bicycles or ride 
in horseless carriages. We find good carriage roads, and 
excellent roadbeds for our railroads. Bridges and tunnels 
carry us over and under rivers, across ravines and through 
mountains. On the water, the canoe and the rowboat, the 
sailing vessel and the steamship, are at our disposal. Naph- 
tha launches and electric yachts glide across the water. Har- 
bors are dredged, lighthouses are erected, breakwaters are 
constructed, and canals are built, all for the use of travelers 
and commerce. The last years of the nineteenth century 
form an era in travel of which the world never dreamed." 



A 



w^-. 







SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. 



SECTION VI.-LETTERS. 



SECTION VI.— LETTERS. 



CHAPTER I. 
LANGUAGE. 

What is the difference between a dog and a boy, or, 
rather, what is the difference between the brute creation and 
mankind? It is as natural for a dog to think as for a boy; 
he sees and hears and touches, smells and tastes as well as 
does the boy; he remembers and, in a certain way, he may 
be said to reason ; he loves and hates and fears ; he is pleased 
and frightened ; is revengeful ; has his likes and dislikes, his 
tastes and prejudices; indeed, a dog, or a horse, or an ele- 
phant has many points of resemblance to a boy or a man. 
But there are essential points of difference. 

One of the most important differences is that man has the 
power of speech which is not possessed by the brute creation. 
This power of speech is a great boon to mankind, one held 
in common by all peoples in all ages. 

Talking or conversation suggests at least two persons, the 
speaker and the hearer, and involves the use of the vocal 
organs on the part of the talker and the ear, the instrument 
of hearing, on the part of the listener. This power of com- 
municating thought, as has been said, is universal with the 
human race. 

In childhood one learns the language of his parents and 
of the people where he lives. In this country, Great Britain, 



248 AMERICAN INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS. 

Canada, and Australia, most of the people speak the English 
language; in France, the French tongue; in Russia, the Rus- 
sian ; in Germany, the German ; in Turkey, the Arabic ; and 
so on. This common speech forms a great bond of unity 
between all people of the same race, and by means of it we 
communicate our ideas one to another. 

There is another language differing widely from the gift 
of speech, yet quite as important for the welfare of the 
human race. Barbarous and savage tribes are dependent 
upon speech alone, but in civilized countries the people have 
acquired another art, that of writing, or of using a written 
language. In speech arbitrary sounds represent ideas. In 
writing arbitrary symbols or characters, called letters and 
words, are used. They are observed by the eye and not by 
the ear. This written language is as extended, as sharp, as 
definite, as full and complete, as is the language of speech. 
Moreover, it has a great advantage over speech. Words can 
be spoken only to a person immediately present, but words 
can be written and conveyed to one who is absent. No 
matter how far apart two persons are, each can communicate 
his ideas to the other just as well as if they were near. 

This written language has still greater usefulness. By 
means of it wise men of all countries who have had great 
thoughts, thoughts of value to the whole human race, have 
been enabled to put those thoughts into a permanent form. 
Thus they have been preserved and handed down from gen- 
eration to generation, so that we inherit to-day the wealth of 
all the ages. We can make ourselves familiar with the great 
thoughts uttered by Jesus, by Socrates, Aristotle, Shake- 
speare, Milton, Burke, Patrick Henry, Daniel Webster, 
Emerson, Longfellow, and countless others, so that they be- 
come our own property. Moreover, when the eye gathers 



LETTERS — LANGUAGE. 



249 




Up these grand truths from the printed page, they are not 
absorbed, they still remain there. They may be used and 
transmitted again and again in the same book and upon the 
same page, even to future generations. 

On one occasion King Solomon said : " Of making many 
books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the 
flesh." The second part 
of this sentence is cer- 
tainly very true, but that 
is not saying anything 
against study, for any- 
thing that is worth doing 
is a cause of weariness. 
When we get weary the 
best thing is to get thor- 
oughly rested, and after 
that to work until we be- 
come weary again. It does 

not injure a strong, well person to get healthily tired; on 
the contrary, the weariness which comes from normal exer- 
cise of the hands or the brain is better than inactive ease. 

What did Solomon mean when he made this sage remark, 
"Of making many books there is no end"? Under what 
circumstances was the remark made? We may not be able 
to answer the last question literally, but we may be permitted 
to imagine the circumstances. Let us suppose that the Queen 
of Sheba had made her famous visit to Jerusalem. She had 
heard in her own country of the acts and the wisdom of Solo- 
mon, and had come to the kingdom of Israel to see, with her 
own eyes, if these reports were true. She heard his wisdom 
from his own lips, for he "told her all her questions." 

Then the Queen of Sheba had said to Solomon : " It was a 



ANCIENT IMPLEMENTS OF WRITING. 



250 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and 
of thy wisdom : howbeit, I believed not their words, until I 
came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the one half 
of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me ; for thou 
exceedest the fame that I heard. Happy are thy men, and 
happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before 
thee, and hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God, 
which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king 
for the Lord thy God." 

The Queen had gone home, and early one morning Solo- 
mon had risen from his couch and gone up to the flat roof 
of his house on Mount Zion just as the sun was rising. 
There in his meditations he thought to himself that the 
Queen of Sheba had paid him great honor and that he ought 
in courtesy to send her a suitable present. What should it 
be? He was impressed with the idea that he would send her 
a copy of the sacred books then in the keeping of the high 
priest. What present could be more appropriate, more hon- 
orable to him, more welcome to her, or more acceptable to 
Jehovah, the God of his people Israel? 

If he sent her a copy of these books it surely ought to be 
a perfect copy. Books were not printed in those days ; they 
were written with the pen, or rather with the stylus. Solomon 
called a servant and said to him, "Send for the chief of the 
scribes. Bring him here." He came, and the king directed 
him to select only those scribes that could do perfect work, 
and to set them at the task of making the finest possible 
copy of the books of Moses and the other sacred books. 

Month after month went by, until finally the work was 
finished and the scribes were ushered into the royal presence, 
bearing in their arms the product of their long-continued 
labor. Roll after roll of the finest parchment was submitted 



LETTERS — LANGUAGE. 



251 



to Solomon for inspection. Each skin began with an illumi- 
nated letter, and the whole work was done in the highest 
style of the art. 

Well pleased was Solomon when these rolls were all prop- 
erly packed, secured from rain, placed upon the backs of 
camels, and the caravan, with a military escort, had set out 
for the distant land 
of S h e b a . Then 
again in the gray of 
the morning Solo- 
mon was at his medi- 
tations upon the 
housetop. Again he 
called a inessenger 
who should summon 
to his presence the 
chief of the scribes. 

"What was the 
cost of making the 
copy of our sacred 
writings for the 
Queen of Sheba? 
How many shekels 
have been paid to 
the scribes for their 
work?" 

When the chief 
scribe had found out he reported it to the king. " Is it in- 
deed so much? " said the king; and when he had thought how 
many months it had taken for that large number of scribes to 
make a single copy of the sacred books, then he exclaimed: 
''Of making many books there is no end." 




AN ANCIENT SCRIBE. 



CHAPTER II. 
THE PRINTING PRESS. 

The times have changed since King Solomon's day. The 
art of printing has been discovered. Now it would be possi- 
ble to make not merely one copy but thousands of copies, not 
only of the sacred books of the Jews in the time of Solomon, 
but of the entire Bible as we have it to-day. Not in the 
months required by the Jewish scribes, but in a single month, 
thousands of copies of the whole Bible could be printed from 
the type set in a single establishment in Boston, Nev/ York, 
or Philadelphia. Surely, before the art of printing one might 
truly say, '* Of making books there is no end." But to-day our 
modern press sends out its volumes by millions, so that no 
longer is there any truth in this apparently wise statement 
of Solomon. It was true in his day, but times have changed. 

Two visitors were wending their way through Machinery 
Hall at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. 
Clatter, clatter, clatter — clatter, clatter, clatter — jigger, 
jigger, jigger — jigger, jigger, jigger. What was that great 
machine that they were approaching? It was the Walter 
press, invented in London for the London Times, — " The 
Thunderer." Well, w^ell! the press does thunder, literally, 
does it not? It was printing that day's issue of the New 
York Times, and there were coming from that press about 
twelve thousand copies of the double-size sheet in an hour. 
Well might it make a racket if it accomplished such a work 
as that. 



LETTERS — THE PRINTING PRESS. 253 

After the visitors were done admiring it they passed on, 
and a little beyond came suddenly upon another printing 
press which was doing its work in comparative silence. Be- 
fore them stood a double Hoe perfecting press, printing the 
Philadelphia Times, turning off thirty thousand copies per 
hour. These came out from the machine, folded ready for 
the wrappers or for the newsboy to take upon his arm and 
run out into the street to sell ! So marvelous was the work 
of the American press. The original invention was surpris- 
ing, but the progress that has been made in making type, 
setting it, electrotyping and inking, and making paper, as 
well as in the presswork, is beyond the power of description. 

There are vague, indefinite stories of printing by the 
Chinese a thousand years before Christ. The Greeks and 
Romans made metal stamps with characters engraved in 
relief. It was not, however, until about the middle of the 
fifteenth century that movable types were made with which 
books could be printed. The period between 1450 and 1500 
witnessed a rapid advance of civilization in Europe. It was 
marked by a great revival of classical learning and art, and 
announced the dawn of modern civilization. At that time 
Europe began to come out into the light of reason, learning, 
and both civil and religious liberty. The mariner's compass 
had been invented ; gunpowder had been discovered ; and 
now the art of printing came into use. It would seem that 
no one man invented this art in the way that Stephenson in- 
vented the locomotive and Whitney the cotton gin. It grew 
up, one man doing a little, and another something more, un- 
til the system was brought to its present wonderful efficiency. 

It has been said that Coster of Haarlem, Holland, in- 
vented wooden types about 1428 and metal types a little 
later. About 1440 John Faust did a little printing, and 



2 54 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

others also have claimed the invention. John Gutenberg is 
the only claimant who is known to have received honor diar- 
ing his life time as the true inventor. The evidence would 
seem to show that he was engaged in his secret process before 
the year 1440. He certainly had a printing office in 1448 at 
Mentz. About this time Faust came into possession of this 
printing office and managed it until his death. Among the 
earliest books printed were, ''Letters of Indulgence,' two 
editions of the Bible, and a Latin dictionary. 

John Baskerville, an Englishman, devoted his life and 
fortune to the improvement of printing. He w^as born in 
1706 and died in 1775. He published an edition of Vergil in 
royal quarto, which was then and is still considered a wonder- 
ful specimen of beautiful printing. His English Bible, Book 
of Common Prayer, and editions of various classics are still 
admired and greatly sought. A Baskerville classic is difficult 
to find in these days and it commands a high price ;• when 
one is found it shows great skill, judgment, and taste. 

Baskerville made types much superior in distinctness and 
elegance to any that had previously been used. He improved 
greatly the lines of the letters, their style and appearance, 
making them as artistic as possible. To this end he planned 
in detail the style of all type which he used. He experi- 
mented also in the manufacture of ink to get that which had 
the most permanent color. He superintended the manu- 
facture of the paper he used in order to obtain a finished sur- 
face best adapted to receive the impressions of the type. 

Printing in America during the colonial days was subject 
to much difficulty. The first printing press in our country 
was set up at Cambridge in the house of the president of 
Harvard College, Rev. Henry Dunster, in 1639. Eliot's 
Bible in the Indian language was printed upon this press be- 



LETTERS — THE PRINTING PRESS. 



255 



tween 1660 and 1663. This same printing establishment is 
still in existence and has been known for many years as the 
University Press. 

The first Bible printed in America in any European 
language was a German Bible issued in 1743 by Christopher 
Sower in Germantown, 



Pennsylvania. This was a 
wonderful w^ork for those' 
early days. It was a large 
quarto Bible, consisting of 
1,284 pages, and it took four 
years to complete the print- 
ing of it. 

How quaint the early 
printing press would appear 
to us of to-day ! It was 
used with very little change 
for one hundred and fifty 
years. The " forms " of type 
were placed upon wood or 
stone beds surrounded by 
frames called "coffins," 
moved in and out by hand 

with great labor, and after each impression the platen which 
had pressed the paper down upon the type had to be screwed 
up again with a bar. The presses which Benjamin Franklin 
used were made with wooden framework of the simplest 
possible construction. Iron frames were first used in Eng- 
land just one hundred years ago. 

Franklin, in his Autobiography, tells the story of his at- 
tempt to set up a printing establishment in Philadelphia. 
At first he found it difficult to obtain any work, but finally 




A FRANKLIN PRESS. 



256 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS 

he was given the job of printing forty sheets of a '' History of 
the Friends." The price offered was low, but Franklin and 
his partner, Meredith, decided to accept it as a beginning. 

Franklin set up the type for a sheet each day, while 
Meredith " worked it off at the press " the next day. The 
type had to be distributed every evening in order that it 
might be ready for the next day's composition. Therefore 
it was often late at night before Franklin finished his day's 
task, perhaps eleven o'clock or even later. 

Other little jobs came in to delay the printers, but Frank- 
lin was determined to do a sheet a day of the history. One 
night, just as his work was done, one of the forms was ac- 
cidentally broken, and two pages "reduced to pi." Frank- 
lin, late as it was, distributed the pi and composed the form 
again before going to bed. 

Such industry and perseverance were sure to bring success 
in the end. Though, in the clubs and markets, every one 
was saying that the establishment must fail, since the two 
other printers in town had barely enough to do, yet Dr. Baird 
was nearer right ; he used to say : " The industry of that 
Franklin is superior to any I ever saw of the kind ; I see him 
at work when I go home from the club, and he is at work 
again before his neighbors are out of bed." 

To-day we have a great variety of printing presses which 
embody both science and art in skilful fashion. These range 
from the smallest size of hand presses, through numberless 
grades, varying in size, strength, power, rapidity, and ease 
of running, to the modern newspaper press and folder and 
the wonderful color printing press. One of the newspaper 
presses will print at one impression, from a single set of 
stereotype plates, papers of four, six, eight, ten, twelve, 
fourteen, or sixteen pages, at the rate of twelve thousand 



LETTERS — ^^THE PRINTING PRESS. 257 

per hour, all cut at the top, pasted, and folded, with the 
supplement inserted at its proper place. With duplicate sets 
of plates, it will print sets of four, six, or eight page papers 
at the rate of twenty-four thousand per hour. 

Let us look for a moment at the method of inking the 
type. Until a comparatively recent date the inking was all 
done by hand, by means of an inking pad. The ink is now 
spread over the type with almost perfect regularity by means 
of flexible rollers. 

Great improvements have been made in typesetting. 
Several late inventions largely take the place of the old- 
fashioned setting by hand. One of these which is much 
used in newspaper work, and to some extent upon books and 
magazines, is called the linotype. By pressing the key of 
the proper letter upon a keyboard arranged something like 
a typewriter, the letter is pushed down, and when a line of 
letters and words has been completed, and the words prop- 
erly spaced, this matrix is pressed down upon the melted 
type metal. The line is already stereotyped for use. 

The recent processes of stereotyping and electrotyping 
have added greatly to the cheapness, accuracy, and beauty of 
printing. Nearly all books formerly printed from movable 
type are now either stereotyped or electrotyped, so that edi- 
tion after edition may be printed from the same plates. 

The art of printing has been called the " Divine Art." It 
is "the art preservative of all arts." To a large extent all 
civilization depends upon the art of printing. 
17 



CHAPTER III. 
THE POSTAL SYSTEM. 

We have already seen that letters may be written and 
sent by mail to distant countries or cities. To send a letter 
to any place in our own country will cost us but two cents ; 
to any country in Europe, but five cents. Indeed, we may 
send a letter to any one of the countries within the postal 
league, — and this includes most of the countries of Asia and 
South America, some parts of Africa and many islands of 
the sea, — for the same simple postage of five cents. 

But the time was when nothing of the kind could have 
been done. In the " long ago " there was no post-office 
system in any country ; no mails, regular or irregular, were 
sent from one place to another. 

The modern postal system evidently grew out of the 
practice among kings of sending couriers to carry messages 
from one to another. In the early times some powerful 
rulers organized a staff of government couriers. After a 
time it came about that these government couriers began to 
carry letters from private individuals of high rank to their 
friends. So, in the process of time, this grew into a per- 
manent system; that is, the government couriers were ac- 
customed to carry private correspondence as well as the mis- 
sives of the king. 

This transmission of letters by special couriers sent out 
by the king dates back to very early times. Explorations in 
Egypt have brought to light specimens of these letters dating 



LETTERS — THE POSTAL SYSTEM. 259 

back to a period of two thousand and even three thousand 
years ago. Upon what do you suppose those letters, sent so 
long ago and preserved to the present time, were written? 
They could not have been written upon paper, for paper was 
not known in those days, and could not have been preserved 
through so many ages ; neither were they written upon parch- 
ment or upon the skins of animals. These letters which 
have stood the test of time for twenty or twenty-five cen- 
turies were written upon tablets of clay or of stone. 

The development of the modern postal system seems to 
have been begun in Great Britain. Some of the account 
books of the kings of England who lived about six hundred 
years ago have been preserved to the present time. In these 
are found records of letter-carrying on regular lines and at 
stated intervals. From this beginning the English postal 
system increased in efficiency and importance ; when the 
colonists came to America they early made arrangements for 
the carrying of letters. 

The records of the General Court of Massachusetts show 
that in 1639 it was enacted "that notice be given Richard 
Fairbanks that his house in Boston is to be the place ap- 
pointed for all letters which are brought from beyond the 
seas or are to be sent thither to be left with him, and he is to 
care for them, that they are to be delivered or sent according 
to the directions; he is allowed for every letter a penny, and 
must answer all mistakes from his own nesflect of this kind." 
In 1657 the colonial law of Virginia required "that every 
planter was to provide a messenger to convey the dispatches 
as they arrived, to the next plantation and so on, paying and 
forfeiting a hogshead of tobacco for default." 

In 1672 it was agreed between some of the colonies along 
the coast that a post be sent once a month from New York to 



26o AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

Boston. How should we be able to-day to transact business 
under such conditions? Now we have many mails a day be- 
tween these two cities. Gradually the postal system was ex- 
tended, and in 1730, Colonel Spotswood of Virginia was 
made Postmaster-General of the colonies by the British Gov- 
ernment. In 1753, Dr. Franklin was made Postmaster- 
General. Franklin was very efficient in this office; he 
visited nearly all of the offices in the country in person, and 
introduced many improvements. In 1774, by his loyalty to 
the colonies, Franklin incurred the enmity of the British 
Government and was dismissed from the office. The next 
year, however, he was appointed Postmaster-General by the 
Continental Congress. In 1792, regular rates of letter post- 
age were fixed by Congress, based on the distance to be sent. 

The writer remembers that when he was a boy he re- 
ceived a letter from his mother fifteen miles away for which 
he had to pay six cents postage. At another time a letter 
was received from his sister who was a little over thirty miles 
away, for which he had to pay eight cents; and when a 
schoolmate who lived more than sixty miles distant sent him 
a letter, he had to pay the postmaster ten cents in order to 
get it. These letters were written on coarse, heavy paper 
with quill pens. The letter was folded, and the fold of one 
side was tucked into the fold of the other side so as to leave 
but one thickness of paper outside of that fold. The letter 
was sealed by a wafer or by sealing wax dropped upon the 
paper where the two edges came together, and stamped with a 
seal. On the opposite side the letter was properly addressed. 
There were no envelopes in those days. 

See what changes have taken place within the memory of 
persons still living. To-day we write a letter, fold it, insert 
it in an envelope, and place on it a two-cent stamp; the car- 



LETTERS — THE POSTAL SYSTEM. 



261 



rier comes to the house, puts the letter in his pouch, carries 
it to the post office, and it is sent to California or any of the 
United States, Mexico or Canada, and delivered to the per- 
son to whom it is addressed. 

Postage stamps were not used on mail matter by govern- 
ment direction until the year 1840, and it was not until 1847 
that the Government issued the first stamps for general use. 
Prior to that, however, in- 
dividual postmasters, on 
their own responsibility, 
had printed and sold post- 
age stamps. Within a few 
years their use became quite 
general in many countries. 

About the year 1850, it 
was noticed that stamps of 
different colors and design 
were received in the mails 
from various parts of the 
w^orld. Then the idea of 
collecting stamps came into 

vogue. After a time children and young people generally 
began to collect and to study stamps. Every minute varia- 
tion of paper, with style of printing, gum, water mark, and 
other differences was considered as making a different issue, 
and in some cases as many as fifty distinct styles of a single 
stamp have been collected. 

An extra fee of ten cents secures the immediate special 
delivery by messenger of any letter thus sent. Merchandise 
parcels can be sent as well as letters and papers. There is a 
money order system and at the present time a great deal of 
thought is put upon the question of post-office savings banks, 




POSTAGE STAMPS. 



262 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 




which have already been successfully established in Great 
Britain and other countries of Europe. 

By the Constitution of the United States, Congress has 

power " to establish post- 



offices and post-roads." 
Before roads were com- 
mon between one State 
and another, the mail 
was carried on horse- 
back. Later, mail wag- 
ons were used to con- 
vey the mails from one 
office to another. As 
stagecoaches multiplied 
they were used as mail 
wagons, the Government 
paying the stage com- 
pany a sum of money 
for carrying the mail 
pouches. 

The general intro- 
duction of railroads 
modified this system of 
mail carriage. Almost 
every railroad has be- 
come a postal road, the mail being carried upon its trains. 
Most of the trains upon the main lines of railroads have each 
a postal car fitted up with the proper conveniences for re- 
ceiving and delivering the mail at the various stations and 
sorting it while the train is moving. 

Suppose a mail pouch to be received at New Haven ; be- 
fore reaching Bridgeport its contents are sorted; all that is 






fc^^ 




ASSORTING MAIL ON THE TRAIN. 



LETTERS — THE POSTAL SYSTEM. 263 

to go to Bridgeport is put into a separate pouch and dropped 
off at that place ; that which is to go to Greenwich is put into 
another pouch and left there, and so on. The mail of New 
York City is put into various pouches according to its desti- 
nation. The mail matter for the sub-offices, like Station A 
and Station B, is put into separate pouches and sent from the 
railroad station on 426. Street directly to these offices, while 
that for the central office is so sorted that there is no delay 
in sending it out after its arrival at the office. The letters 
for lock boxes are placed together by sections, while those 
for carriers are put up in divisions so as to be delivered at once 
to the several carriers. Meantime mail matter which is to go 
beyond New York is put into proper pouches so that one can 
be dropped off at Trenton, another at Philadelphia, and so on. 

It will readily be seen that vast improvements have been 
made in postal arrangements. The condition of the United 
States postal system has been greatly improved each year. 
It seems almost marvelous that the mail service is so reliable 
and that the transmission of mail matter is so expeditious and 
satisfactory. If mail matter should happen to be lost, which 
is very rarely the case, the facilities for finding it are some- 
times quite surprising, as the following incident will show. 

A young lady in Iowa sent by mail a piece of crocheted 
edging to her cousin in Dorchester, which is a part of Boston, 
Massachusetts. The contents slipped out somewhere and the 
wrapper was delivered to its proper address, but without the 
edging. A letter had already been received in which the send- 
ing of the article was mentioned, so that the receiver knew 
from whom the wrapper came. She notified the sub-post- 
master in charge of the Dorchester office, and he began the 
system of tracing by means of blanks prepared for that pur- 
pose. He wrote out the description of the article and the 



264 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

facts of the case, and sent these blanks to the postmaster at 
Boston. The Boston postmaster forwarded them to Chicago; 
from Chicago the blanks were sent to the several offices west 
of Chicago until they reached the point of departure, in Iowa. 
No trace was found to answer the description, and the blanks 
came back to Chicago. They were then sent eastward. At 
Cleveland the missing article was found and forwarded to the 
postmaster at Chicago, whence the blanks had last been sent 
out. The Chicago postmaster forwarded the same to Boston 
with the missing article; from Boston the description and 
the merchandise were sent to Dorchester. Meantime the 
family had moved to Salem, and the Dorchester postmaster 
forwarded them to Salem. The receiver secured the missing 
article and receipted for the same, while the description with 
its various entries of travel, from Dorchester to Boston, from 
Boston to Chicago, from Chicago to the various offices in 
Iowa, then back to Chicago, thence to the different offices as 
far as Cleveland, and then from Cleveland to Chicago, Boston, 
Dorchester, and Salem, furnished a document of considerable 
interest. 

In 1790 there were 70 post offices and 1,875 niiles of 
post roads. That year the number of letters and papers de- 
livered did not exceed 2,000,000. In 1890, one hundred 
years afterward, there were more than 65,000 post offices 
and more than 30,000 mail routes. During that year more 
than 10,000,000,000 pieces of mail matter were handled. 
The receipts and expenditures of the post-office department 
in the United States amount annually to about $75,000,000. 

This resume of the postal service plainly shows the energy, 
enterprise, and intelligence of our people, the success attained 
by our Government, and the tremendous growth and de- 
velopment of our country. 



CHAPTER IV. 
SIGNALING. 

The transmission of letters from one point to another al- 
ways requires time. Even when a letter is dropped into the 
post office it will not go until the next regular mail. It was 
long ago seen that occasions frequently arose when it was 
necessary to send messages quickly. This was especially 
important in times of war, when each army desired to know 
immediately the movements of the enemy. This necessity 
led to various devices for transmitting messages instantane- 
ously. Any form of signaling would be satisfactory if the 
signals were visible to the eye of the distant observer. 

The earliest method of signaling was the use of the 
beacon fire or the sending of messages by light. In the 
early colonial period in this country, during the anxious 
times of Indian hostilities, beacon poles were here and there 
set up and from them large kettles were suspended which 
held combustible matter. The burning of this material con- 
veyed the intelligence that danger was at hand. 

One of the earliest beacon poles was erected on Beacon 
Hill, in Boston, about 1634. A watchman was constantly at 
the place to give the signal on the approach of danger. That 
beacon pole was a tall mast, firmly supported, about seventy 
feet in height. Tree nails were driven into it to enable the 
watchman to ascend, and near its top an iron crane pro- 
jected which supported an iron skeleton frame. In this 
frame was placed a barrel of tar to be fired when the occasion 



266 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



required the signal. This beacon was more than two hundred 
feet above the sea level, and the light of it, therefore, could be 
seen for a great distance inland. Many of the early settle- 
ments in New England were made upon the tops of hills in 
order that the people might the more quickly and easily see 

the approach of Indians and 
signal the news to other set- 
tlements by bonfires. 

A second method of sig- 
naling was by the use of the 
semaphore. This was invent- 
ed by Claude Chappe and 
was adopted by the French 
Government in 1794. It con- 
sists of an upright post, which 
supports a horizontal bar or 
arm, which can be put at 
various angles. In order to 
carry out this system of sig- 
naling, stations must pre- 
viously be agreed upon and 
signal officers constantly on 
duty. If the intelligence 
was to be conveyed to a considerable distance intermediate 
stations must be had. The second station received the signal 
from the first and transmitted it to the third, and so on. 
This proved to be a very difficult operation and was never 
extensively used, 

A third and successful form of signaling was by the mo- 
tion of flags. During our Civil War the army made much 
use of military signals. The system was devised by Major 
Myer and was continued through the war, not only in the 




SIGNALING BY BEACON FIRES. 



LETTERS — SIGNALING. 26/ 

army but on naval vessels. When the stations were less 
than five miles apart signaling was considered to be at very 
short range. Messages have been sent ten miles by means 
of a pocket handkerchief attached to a twelve-foot rod. 
With the regular flags and staffs used by the signal corps 
during the war, signals were often read twenty-five miles 
away, and it is said that single words have been read at a 
distance of forty miles. 

In the early spring of 1863 General Peck was in com- 
mand of the Union forces at Suffolk, Virginia. He had under 
him about ten thousand men and had thoroughly fortified the 
place by a connected system of forts, redoubts, and breast- 
works. His outmost signal station was placed on an elevated 
plateau across the Nansemond River. This station was made 
by sawing off the top of a tall pine tree and placing thereon 
a small platform surrounded by a railing. The signal officer 
would tie his horse at the foot of the tree and mount to the 
platform by a rope ladder. 

Early one morning in March, this signal officer suddenly 
observed the head of a column of troops emerging from the 
woods in the rear. This was the advance guard of two Con- 
federate corps under General Longstreet. Instantly he 
caught up his signal flag and as quickly as possible signaled 
to the town the approach of the enemy. Picking up his 
signal book he hurried down the ladder, mounted his horse 
and galloped away. Before he could reach his saddle, how- 
ever, the Confederates were within rifle range and fired at 
him. They did not succeed in hitting him and he escaped 
safely to his friends. 

The signal had been seen and was quickly repeated to all 
parts of the fortified town. The drums instantly beat the 
long roll and, within five minutes from the time his signal 



268 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

was given, and before General Longstreet could swing out 
his light battery and open fire, the entire Federal force was 
under arms and the artillery in the nearest battery had opened 
a raking fire. The briskness of this fire from the Federal 
battery soon obliged Longstreet to withdraw his forces to the 
cover of the woods. Had it not been for the promptness of 
the signal officer it is possible that the town might have been 
captured. 

A notable use of this system of army signals occurred in 
the campaign of General Miles against the Apaches in New 
Mexico and Arizona in 1886. He established a system of 
thirteen signal stations in that country, over which, during 
a period of four months, more than eighteen hundred mes- 
sages were sent. The savages were surprised and con- 
founded by the way intelligence of their movements became 
known hundreds of miles distant. 

As early as 1861 Moses G. Farmer introduced a success- 
ful method of signaling which afterward was employed by 
the officers of the United States Coast Survey on Lake 
Superior. This system was by means of mirrors which were 
able to reflect the sunlight between stations ninety miles 
apart. This method is called the heliographic system. The 
French have used it among the islands of the Indian Ocean 
where the stations are on mountain peaks sometimes 135 
miles apart. Even this long-range signaling has been sur- 
passed by our own Signal Corps, which has succeeded in send- 
ing messages by our method from Mount Uncompahgre in 
Colorado to Mount Ellen in Utah, a distance of 183 miles. 
During the siege of Paris, messages by the use of the calcium 
light, concentrated and directed by lenses, were sent from 
one point to another. 

A very unique form of signaling was employed by New 



LETTERS — SIGNALING. 269 

York State at the opening of the Erie Canal, in 1825. The 
cannon, which had been captured by Commodore Perry at 
the time of his famous victory on Lake Erie, were placed at 
intervals along the line of the canal. When the first canal 
boat started from Buffalo, the first cannon was fired. When 
the sound was heard at the second cannon, that was dis- 
charged; and so on, the entire length of the canal. Two 
hours after the start at Buffalo the news had reached New 
York. 

All these various methods of communication at long 
range have proved more or less objectionable and unsatis- 
factory. It was natural, therefore, that as soon as it was 
known that electricity could be conducted by wires from one 
place to another, experiments should be begun in the hope 
of finding some possible means of conveying intelligence by 
it, Perhaps the earliest suggestion was in a letter published 
in The Scots Magazine, of February, 1753. The letter was 
signed "C. M.", which probably meant Charles Morrison, a 
young Scotch surgeon. He proposed to use as many in- 
sulated conductors as there were letters in the alphabet. 
Each wire was to represent one letter only, and the message 
would be sent by charging the several wires in succession so 
that the operator in receiving it would be obliged to notice 
the order of movement among the wires. From that simple 
beginning inventors proceeded to suggest first one thing 
and then another, but they found so many difficulties that it 
seemed impossible to overcome them all. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE TELEGRAPH. 

On the second day of April, 1872, in the city of New 
York, the life of a benefactor of his race, an aged man who 
had seen more than fourscore years of mingled trial and 
triumph, was ended. That man was Prof. Samuel Finley 




ELECTRIC WIRES. 



Breese Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph. His 
name is as widely known the world over as that of Washing- 
ton, or Caesar, or Aristotle. His long life had been ex- 
tremely checkered. He had passed through troubles, trials, 
anxieties, disappointments, bereavements; he had been sub- 
ject to persecutions, losses, poverty, toil, discouragements; 
he had met with successes, gains, wealth, luxury, honors, 
fame; and finally the homage of republics, kingdoms, em- 
pires had been laid at his feet. He was never cast down, 
never unduly elated. He bore all his poverty and disap- 



LETTERS — THE TELEGRAPH. 2/1 

pointments and wore all his honors and wealth with the 
" grace of a Christian and the calmness of a philosopher." 

Professor Morse was born at the foot of Breed's Hill in 
Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 27th, 1791. He was the 
oldest of three brothers. His father was a very distinguished 
man in his day ; for more than thirty years the pastor of a 
church in Charlestown, a noted preacher, a good historian, 
the author of many books, and, particularly, the father of the 
science of geography in the United States. Professor Morse 
inherited from both his father and his mother those traits of 
character which enabled him to succeed in his great life work, 
in spite of discouragements, obstacles, and opposition. His 
ancestors were all noted for their " intelligence, energy, origi- 
nal thinking, perseverence, and integrity." 

How we would like to step into the little schoolroom and 
see Samuel at his first school. He was four years of age. 
His teacher was known as "Old Ma'am Rand," an invalid 
who could not leave her chair. She governed the uneasy 
little urchins with a long rattan that would reach across the 
small room where she kept her school. At seven years of age- 
Samuel was sent to Andover to a preparatory school, kept by 
Mr. Foster; here he fitted for Phillips Academy and, in that 
famous institution, under the direction of Mark Newman, he 
prepared for Yale College, where he was graduated in 18 10. 

While in college he was under the instruction of Jeremiah 
Day in natural philosophy and paid great attention to the 
subject of electricity, getting everything that was known 
about it at that time. Professor Day said : " Morse was often 
present in my laboratory during my preparatory arrange- 
ments and experiments, and thus was made acquainted with 
them." On leaving college Morse had a burning ambition 
to be a portrait painter. He put himself under the instruc- 



2/2 AMERICAN INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS. 

tion of Washington Allston, and went with him to England 
to pursue his favorite study. Is it not a little singular that 
Morse, who invented the telegraph, was a student under 
Allston, and that Robert Fulton, who invented the American 
steamboat, was a student under West, another famous 
American painter? 

One day Mr. Allston introduced young Mor^ to Benjamin 
West, whose fame at that time was as wide as the world of 
art. West was in his studio painting his "Christ Rejected." 
After a time he began a critical examination of Mr. Morse's 
hands and at length said : " Let me tie you with this cord, 
and take that place while I paint the hands of our Saviour." 
Morse of course complied; West finished his work and, re- 
leasing him, said, " You may say now, if you please, you had 
a hand in this picture." 

Morse had many interesting experiences in England dur- 
ing his four years' study under Allston. He returned to 
America in 1815, and from that time for about fifteen years 
devoted himself to painting and inventing. He was for 
some time professor of the fine arts in the University of 
the City of New York, and during all these years he paid 
much attention to the study of electricity. 

After three years spent in Europe, he returned in 1832 
on the packet ship Sully. In the early part of the voyage, 
one day at the dinner table, the conversation turned to the 
subject of electro-magnetism. Professor Morse remarked: 
" If the presence of electricity can be made visible in any 
part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence may not 
be transmitted by electricity." 

His mind could think of nothing else ; this one idea had 
taken complete possession of his soul; all that he had learned 
in former years, his experiments with Professor Day at Yale 



LETTERS — THE TELEGRAPH. 2/3 

College, and his later studies, were all revived and drawn 
upon for ways and means to accomplish the thing he had in 
mind. He withdrew from the table and went upon deck. 
He was in mid-ocean, the sky everywhere above him, the sea 
everywhere below him. As the lightning comes out of the 
east and shines unto the west, so swift and so far was that 
instrument to. work which was taking shape in his mind. 

He could not fail, for patience, perseverance, and hope 
were hereditary traits in his character. He was just at the 
maturity of manhood, forty-one years of age; from that time 
this one idea absorbed his mind. All his powers were con- 
centrated upon this one subject, the electric telegraph. 

Now began a series of experiences such as probably no 
other man ever passed through. Scarcely did any one ever 
suffer so much, endure so much, fail so many times to ac- 
complish his darling object, as did Morse. He completed 
his invention ; he perfected it. He devised his alphabet 
consisting of long and short marks and dots ; he obtained a 
patent for it; but he had not the money to put the invention 
in operation. Years of trouble and even abject poverty fol- 
lowed. • He was so reduced at one time that he was without 
food for twenty-four hours. He applied to Congress again 
and again for a grant to enable him to build and put in 
operation a trial line between Baltimore and Washington, 

On the morning of the 4th of March, 1843, ^s Professor 
Morse came down to breakfast, at his hotel in Washington, 
a young lady met him and said : 

" I have come to congratulate you, sir." 
" For what, my dear friend? " asked the professor. 
"On the passage of your bill." 
That bill was for the appropriation by Congress of $30,000 

for the purpose of " constructing a line of electric-magnetic 
18 



2 74 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



telegraph " under the direction of Professor Morse. The bill 
had passed the House some days before. It had been favor- 
ably reported to the Senate, but there were a hundred and 
forty bills before it upon the calendar which were to be 
taken up in their regular order. Professor Morse had re- 
mained in the Senate 
chamber till late in the 
evening. His friends in- 
formed him that it was im- 
possible for the bill to be 
reached, as the Senate was 
to adjourn at midnight. 
He had, therefore, retired 
to his hotel thoroughly 
discouraged. Imagine 
then, if you can, his sur- 
prise and his joy when 
Miss Ellsworth, the daugh- 
ter of his friend, Hon. H. 
L. Ellsworth, of Connecti- 
cut, the commissioner of 
patents, told him that in the closing moments of the session 
the bill had passed without a division. 

He had invented the recording electric telegraph eleven 
years before on board the packet ship Sully, upon his return 
voyage from Europe. He had spent eleven years in perfect- 
ing his plans, and in striving to secure the means for placing 
this great invention before the American people. During 
this time he had converted all his property into money and 
used all that money in pushing the enterprise. His only 
hope now was the bill before Congress. That bill had 
passed! With streaming eyes Professor Morse thanked 




MORSE HEARS OF HIS SUCCESS. 



LETTERS — THE TELEGRAPH. 275 

Miss Ellsworth for her joyous announcement, and promised 
her that she should dictate the first message which should be 
sent over the wires. 

And so it came to pass that on the 24th of May, 1844, 
these words furnished by Miss Ellsworth were telegraphed 
by Professor Morse from the Capitol at Washington, to his 
friend and assistant, Mr. Alfred Vail, at Baltimore, and im- 
mediately repeated back again : 

" What hath God wrought! " 

Well may we believe that the inventor spoke from the 
heart when he said years later : " No words could have been 
selected more expressive of the disposition of my own mind 
at that time, to ascribe all the honor to Him to whom it truly 
belongs." 

A singular circumstance brought this invention to the at- 
tention of the people of the whole country as hardly anything 
else could have done. . The National Democratic convention 
was in session at Baltimore. They had unanimously nomi- 
nated James K. Polk for the Presidency. They then nomi- 
nated Silas Wright as their candidate for Vice-President. 
This information was immediately telegraphed by Mr. Vail 
to Professor Morse and at once communicated by him to Mr. 
Wright, then in the Senate chamber. A few minutes later 
the convention was astonished by receiving a telegram from 
Mr. Wright, declining the nomination. The members were 
incredulous and declared that it was a trick of Mr. Wright's 
enemies. They voted to send a committee to Washington to 
interview Mr. Wright, and adjourned until the next morning. 

On the return of this committee the truth of the message 
was corroborated, and thus this new telegraph, just completed, 
with a line just open for public patronage, was advertised 
through the delegates of this national convention to the peo- 



2/6 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

pie of every State in the Union. Astonishment was the sen- 
sation of the hour. The work bordered upon the miraculous. 
Ordinarily the motto is true that "To see is to believe," but 
this result staggered everybody. 

Although the invention was complete and now in prac- 
tical operation, yet Professor Morse's trials were not over. 
He received the congratulations of his friends, but he was 
also brought to the notice of his enemies. Let us pass over 
these trials and give attention to the more pleasant duty of 
considering his triumphs. The telegraph rapidly came into 
general use between the great cities of the country. Nor was 
its use confined to America ; almost immediately it was suc- 
cessfully introduced into the various countries of Europe. 

In 1854, the Supreme Court of the United States decided 
unanimously in favor of Professor Morse on all points involv- 
ing his right to the claim of having been the original invent- 
or of the electro-magnetic telegraph. In 1846, Yale College 
conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Lav/s (LL.D.). 
He was made a member of various learned societies in France, 
Belgium, and the United States. He received a diamond 
decoration from the Sultan of Turkey, a gold snuff box con- 
taining the Prussian gold medal for scientific merit, the great 
gold medal of Arts and Science from Wiirtemberg, and the 
great gold medal of Science and Art from the Emperor of 
Austria. ^ Other honors were conferred upon him by Den- 
mark, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Great Britain. At the in- 
stance of Napoleon III., Emperor of the French, representa- 
tives from various countries met in Paris in 1858 and decided 
upon a collective testimonial to Professor Morse, and the re- 
sult of their deliberations was a vote of 400,000 francs. 

No invention in ancient or modern times has wrought 
such a revolution — a revolution in all business, in commerce, 



LETTERS — THE TELEGRAPH. 2/7 

trade, manufacturing and the mechanic arts, in politics, gov- 
ernment, and in religious affairs. It is not given to mortal 
man to comprehend the greatness, to duly appreciate the 
grandeur, or to measure the utility, of this remarkable inven- 
tion. Over the mountains, through the valleys, under tho 
seas flies the electric current, conveying all-important items 
of news from place to place, from country to country, from 
continent to continent. 

" This electric chain from East to West 

More than mere motal, more than mammon can. 

Binds us together — kinsmen, in the best ; 
Brethren as one ; and looking far beyond 

The world in an electric union blest." 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE ATLANTIC CABLE. 

The growth of the telegraph was very much like that of 
the railroad. In 1844, the first line was opened, as we have 
seen, between Baltimore and Washington, a distance of forty 
miles. Within a few years lines wore extended to the prin- 
cipal cities of the United States. In 1847, the Morse tele- 
graph was introduced into Germany and rapidly spread over 
the entire continent of Europe. For the most part the wires 
were placed by the side of the railroad tracks,- — wherever the 
railroad penetrated the telegraph went also. 

Before many years had passed time was in a sense obliter 
ated. Whatever happened in New York might be immedi- 
ately known in Chicago. Incidents that took place in New 
v^iieans might be narrated in Boston almost as soon as they 
occurred. London and Rome, Madrid and St. Petersburg, 
were united by the lightning rapidity of the telegraphic cur- 
rent. Meanwhile London and New York were as far apart 
as ever. News could be conve5^.ed between the two hemi- 
spheres only by the comparatively slow-moving steamers. 
The next step in the development of communication must be 
the connecting of Europe with America by a telegraph wire. 

The year before the passage of the act by which Congress 
provided Professor Morse with the means for completing the 
first telegraph line, he had stretched a wire under the water 
from Castle Garden, New York City, to Governor's Island 
in the harbor. He had thus proved that telegraph messages 



LETTERS — THE ATLANTIC CABLE. 279 

could be sent under water. Ten years later a " submarine 
telegraph " was constructed, connecting England with the 
continent of Europe. Other short submarine cables were 
laid and successfully operated. To undertake, however, to 
lay a cable from Europe to America, thousands of miles long 
and hundreds of fathoms below the surface of the ocean, was 
an entirely different matter. A few enthusiastic men, among 
them Professor Morse, believed that it could be done, but the 
majority of people viewed it as an impossibility. 

Was there any other way to connect the two worlds by an 
electric wire? Might it not be possible to build a telegraph 
line from Europe, starting from some point in Russia, across 
Northern Asia, to the Behring Straits? Might not a com- 
paratively short cable be laid to Russian America (for Alaska 
had not then been sold to the United States), which could 
connect with a telegraph line to be erected across the con- 
tinent to New York City ? 

Think of the magnitude of this proposition ! In place of 
laying a submarine cable across the Atlantic Ocean it was 
proposed to traverse the entire circuit of the earth, except 
the Atlantic, by a telegraph line. It was proposed to con- 
struct across the wilds of Siberia, where no railroad had 
been built, a telegraph line thousands of miles in length ; 
and, besides laying a cable, to build another line of great 
length from the Aleutian Islands to the Pacific coast of the 
United States, and thence across the Rockies, where at that 
time there was no railroad. 

The undertaking was a great one, but a company was 
formed for the purpose of erecting a Russian-American tele- 
graph. Experienced men were selected from English and 
American telegraphers and sent to Siberia to push the work. 
The- prospects of success for the great enterprise were favor- 



2 So AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

able "when the news arrived that the long-talked-of Atlantic 
cable was at last laid and in complete working order. The 
Russian-American telegraph could not hope to compete with 
the cable, and the project was abandoned. 

To Cyrus W. Field belongs the honor of pushing forward 
to successful completion the Atlantic cable. At the early- 
age of fifteen Cyrus left the parsonage at Stockbridge, Con- 
necticut, the horne of his father, Rev. David Dudley Field, 
for New York. On arriving in the city he obtained employ- 
ment as an errand boy in the dry-goods establishment of A. T. 
Stewart. Three years later, when he decided to give up his 
place as clerk in the store, the proprietor showed his appre- 
ciation of the boy's merits by urging him to remain, making 
him a liberal offer if he would do so. He decided to make a 
change, however, and was soon engaged with a brother in 
Lee, Massachusetts. 

When young Field was twenty years of age he wxnt into 
business for himself, and for the next thirteen years was 
known as one of New York's successful merchants. He then 
retired from active business, but found it a difficult task to 
do nothing. After a long voyage to South America, he re- 
turned to New York, where he gladly welcomed the oppor- 
tunity that then came to busy himself. 

The Newfoundland Electric Telegraph Company had 
been engaged for a year in the work of erecting a line on that 
island, preparatory to connecting it with the mainland by a 
cable. The company was compelled to stop work, however, 
for lack of the necessary means to continue. The leading 
member of the company, Frederick N. Gisborne, appealed 
to Mr. Field for material assistance. After several inter- 
views, in the course of which he became deeply interested in 
the scheme, Mr. Field came to the conclusion not only that 



LETTERS — THE ATLANTIC CABLE. 28 I 

the plan of connecting Newfoundland with the United States 
was feasible, but also that Newfoundland was the best start- 
ing point for a cable to Ireland. 

With characteristic energy Mr. Field went at once to 
work. He formed a new company and obtained extensive 
privileges from the governments of Newfoundland, Prince 
Edwards Island, and the State of Maine. Many months were 
spent in erecting the land telegraph across Newfoundland, 
over wild marsh and waste moor, rocks, hills, and forests. A 
cable, obtained in England, was unsuccessfully laid across 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1855.- The next year a second 
attempt was successful. The preliminary work was now 
completed. 

More means and more influence were needed. Mr. Field 
organized in London the Atlantic Telegraph Company, and 
showed his own faith by personally subscribing for one- 
quarter of the stock. The governments of Great Britain and 
the United States liberally aided the new company and fur- 
nished ships for laying down the cable. 

On the 7th of August, 1857, the Niagara and the Agamem- 
non sailed from Ireland, each carrying 1,250 miles of cable. 
The Niagara began paying out her line and all went well for 
three days. At nine o'clock on the evening of the tenth, 
however, the cable ceased working. Three hours later the 
electric current returned, to the intense relief of all; but 
before morning came the cry, " Stop her! back her! the cable 
has parted! " 

With flags at half-mast the ships returned to Ireland. 
Half a million dollars had been lost already. Disheartened, 
but not discouraged, the company voted to increase its capital 
and try again the next year. This time the two steamers 
sailed directly to mid-ocean, spliced the two parts of the 



282 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



cable, and sailed away from each other, the Agamemnon for 
Ireland and the Niagara for Newfoundland. On the 17th 
of August the extremities of the cable were connected with 
the instruments and the work was done. In the space of 




LAYING AN OCEAN CABLE. 



thirty-five minutes there was flashed under the ocean the 
message : 

" Europe and America are united by telegraph. Glory to 
God in the highest; on earth peace; good will toward men." 

Messages and replies from the Queen to the President of 
the United States and from the mayor of London to the mayor 
of New York followed. The American people were wild 
with enthusiasm ; they declared the Atlantic cable to be the 
greatest achievement of the age, and they heaped boundless 



LETTERS — THE ATLANTIC CABLE. 



283 



praise upon the head of the persistent and courageous Field. 
Eighteen days afterward, the signals became unintelligible 
and the first Atlantic cable ceased to work. 

Was all the time and money so far spent thrown away? 
No! for this first experim.ent paved the way for another and 
successful attempt. It is said also that one message, sent 

during these few days, ^ _„__ _ „_ 

saved the commercial - ^ 

world no less a sum 

than two hundred and 

fifty thousand dollars. 

For the time being, 

however, the project 

of an Atlantic cable 

was allowed to remain 

quiet. 

Mr. Field was fi- 
nancially ruined. 
The Civil War in the 
United States occu- 
pied the thoughts of all for several years. But in time the 
company was ready to try again. A newly prepared cable 
was made, the twenty-three hundred miles of which weighed 
more than four thousand tons. The largest vessel in the 
world, the Great Eastern, was employed to carry and lay it. 
On July 23d, 1865, the steamer started from Ireland and con- 
tinued on its westward course until August 2d; then the 
cable parted, more than a thousand miles from the starting 
point. Nine days were spent in attempts to grapple for the 
cable, but all in vain. 

The next year the Great Eastern again set sail, with a 
new cable and with sufficient wire to complete the cable of 




THE GREAT EASTERN. 



284 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

the previous year, if possible. In fourteen days the steamer 
entered the harbor in Newfoundland. Two months later the 
same steamer again reached Newfoundland, having captured 
the missing end of the other wire, thereby completing two 
cables from Europe to America. 

July 27th, 1866, was a joyous day in the life of Cyrus W. 
Field. For thirteen years he had thought of little else but 
the submarine cable. Failure after failure had not discour- 
aged him ; loss of property only stimulated him to further 
efforts. Now success had come. The new cable was more 
substantial than the other of eight years before. That had 
failed, but this would succeed. It did succeed. From that 
day to this telegraphic communication between Europe and 
America has been constant. 

Submarine cables are now in extensive operation in all 
parts of the world. More than half a dozen cross the At- 
lantic, and lines have been constructed from England to India, 
from India to Australia, and from the United States to Mexico 
and South America. At the present time there are perhaps 
two hundred cables belonging to companies, and about five 
hundred belonging to government systems. These cables, 
all told, cover a distance of nearly a hundred thousand miles. 

A recent incident is told that shows something of the 
greatness of the telegraph. In June, 1897, a great celebra- 
tion took place in London, in honor of the sixty years that 
Queen Victoria had been upon the British throne. The 
Queen rode in a procession through streets packed with mil- 
lions of people. Just as she left the palace she pressed an 
electric button. Instantly this message was sent to her 
colonies all over the world : 

" From my heart I thank my beloved people. May God 
bless them. Victoria, R. I." 



LETTERS — THE ATLANTIC CABLE. 285 

To forty different points in her empire sped the electric 
message. In sixteen minutes a reply came from Ottawa in 
Canada; then one by one answers came in from more remote 
provinces; until, before the Queen reached London Bridge, 
the Cape of Good Hope, the Gold Coast of Africa, and the 
great continent of Australia had sent responses to her message. 



CHAPTER VII. 
THE TELEPHONE. 

When the telegraph was invented, years ago, it seemed 
little less than a miracle that a message could be dictated in 
one city and received almost instantaneously in another city 
far distant from the sender. Scientists, however, began at 
once on the invention of something more wonderful. The 
telegraph lacks in one respect. By it messages must be 
sent exactly as dictated and cannot be corrected until the re- 
ply is received. In a sense, sending and receiving messages 
by telegraph is a form of conversation, but a conversation at 
arm's-length. To carry on a real conversation at long dis- 
tances would be a great .advance. An instrument prepared 
for this purpose would be called a telephone. 

In 1875 Alexander Graham Bell invented the first success- 
ful electric telephone. This was exhibited at Salem, Massa- 
chusetts, and at Philadelphia at the Centennial Exhibition, 
and a patent for it was obtained. The apparatus of Bell's 
telephone is very simple, and practically consists of four 
parts : the battery, the wire which runs from the speaker to 
the hearer, a diaphragm against which the vibrations of the 
air produced by the voice of the speaker strike, and another 
diaphragm at the other end of the wire which reproduces 
similar vibrations and sends them to the ear of the listener. 
Elisha Gray of Boston made a similar invention and applied 
for a patent two hours after Bell's application was filed. 
The invention of Mr. Bell has proved a decided success. 



LETTERS — THE TELEPHONE. 



287 



All telephonic operations, since this invention, have been 
based upon the instrument which he patented in 1876. 

Mr. Bell was the son of a distinguished Scotch educator, 
Alexander Melville Bell. The father is noted for the inven- 
tion of a new method for improving impediments in speech. 
This system of instruction is called 
"Bell's Visible Speech." It is used 
with great success in teaching deaf- 
mutes to speak. 

His son Alexander was born in 
Edinburgh in 1847 and was educated at 
the University of Edinburgh. He re- 
moved to London when he was twenty 
years of age and was for a time in the 
University there. Three years later he 
went to Canada with his father, and at 
the age of twenty-five took up his res- 
idence in the United States, and be- 
came professor of vocal physiology in 
Boston University. He had been in 
this country but three years when he 
made his great invention, and its com- 
plete success gave him immense wealth. Later he invented 
the "photophone," in which a vibratory beam of light is 
substituted for a wire in conveying speech. This instrument 
has attracted much attention but has not proved of practical 
use. Professor Bell is a member of various learned societies 
and has published many scientific papers. His present home 
is in Washington. 

Within ten years the art of telephoning has rapidly de- 
veloped. This has stimulated inventions and brought into 
use a vast number of special contrivances for local and long- 




A TELEPHONE. 



288 



AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 



distance transmission. The principal inventors of these nev: 
contrivances are Bell, Berliner, Edison, Hughes, Dolbear, 
Gray, Blake, and Peirce. 

Nearly all of the telephone business of our country is 
carried on under licenses from the American Bell Telephone 
Company. The telephone lines at present in the United 
States would aggregate a distance of more than six hundred 
thousand miles, and there are more than half a million in- 
struments in our country alone. The longest telephone line 
extends from Portland, Maine, via Boston, New York, and 

Chicago, to Milwaukee, a 
distance of more than thir- 
teen hundred miles. 

Let us consider for a 
moment the wonders of this 
marvelous invention, as 
compared with another no 
less marvelous in its way. 

In 1867 Anson Burlin- 
game was appointed by the 
Chinese Government special 
envoy to the United States 
and the great European 
governments, with power 
to frame treaties of friend- 
ship with those nations. This was an honor never before 
conferred on a foreigner. Mr. Burlingame accepted the 
appointment and, at the head of a large mission of distin- 
guished Chinese officials, arrived in this country early in 
1868, negotiated with our Government the "Burlingame 
Treaty," proceeded the same year to England, thence to 
France, the next year to Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and 




ALEXANDER BELL USING A LONG-DISTANCE 
TELEPHONE. 



LETTERS — THE TELEPHONE. 289 

Prussia, and finally reached Russia early in 1870. He died in 
St. Petersburg after a few days' illness, on the 2 3d of February. 

Now see what the telegraph did. His death occurred 
about half-past nine in the morning. As soon as possible 
the fact was telegraphed to our minister in Paris. He for- 
warded the news to our minister in London ; by him it was 
cabled across the Atlantic, transmitted from the cable to 
Washington and delivered to Nathaniel P. Banks, a member 
of the Plouse of Representatives from Massachusetts. Gen- 
eral Banks read the dispatch to the House, and delivered 
offhand an extended eulogy upon the distinguished son of 
Massachusetts. That speech of General Banks was written 
out, sent to the telegraph office, transmitted by the electric 
current to the various cities of the country, put into type, 
printed in the evening newspapers, and the writer of this 
chapter read it at four o'clock in the afternoon of the same day 
that Mr. Burlingame died. This was done as early as 1870. 

But what is that compared to the greater wonders of the 
telephone? That a man can "talk into" the little instru- 
ment, and his voice be heard and recognized, and his words 
understood, by his friend in a city five hundred or one thou- 
sand miles away, is indeed a miracle. Consider for a moment 
what is done by means of the switchboard in the central tele- 
phone office of a great city. Every one of the thousands of 
subscribers has his own instrument for transmitting and re- 
ceiving messages. One of these subscribers rings a bell in 
his house or his business office which rings another bell at the 
central station; the attendant inquires "Hello! what num- 
ber?" and receives a reply, "four, naught, eight, Tremont." 
The attendant by a simple switch, turned by a touch of the 
hand, makes the connection and rings the bell of that sub- 
scriber whose number is "408 Tremont." Number "408 



290 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

Tremont " steps to the instrument and in a quiet voice says: 
" Hello! who is it? " Thus these two persons are placed in 
direct communication, and can talk with each other, back 
and forth, as long as they please. 

This conversation is carried on between two different 
sections of the city where these two men live, but the same 
conversation may with equal ease be carried on between 
Boston and New York, between Boston and Washington, or be- 
tween New York and Chicago. Thus time and distance are an- 
nihilated and the whole world stands, as it were, face to face. 

But the marvel does not end here. The above conversa- 
tion is carried on by means of a continuous wire which runs 
from one place to the other. If there are parallel wires, 
strange to say, the vibrations carried on in the one wire are 
liable to create, by induction, similar vibrations in the parallel 
wire. Here is an illustration : 

Nearly twenty years ago, soon after the invention came 
into use, three gentlemen in Providence, Rhode Island, put 
up a private line between their three houses, making a circuit. 
Upon this line they carried on experiments and made a 
number of important discoveries. The evening was the time 
when they principally used their private telephone line. On 
a certain Tuesday evening these three gentlemen, conversing 
one with another, suddenly found themselves listening to 
strains of music. All three of them heard the same thing; 
the sound of a cornet and of one or two other musical instru- 
ments; then singing and a soprano voice. They wrote down 
the names of the pieces that were sung and the tunes that 
were played upon the instruments. They had no knowledge 
of the source of these sounds. 

The next day, and for days following, these gentlemen 
went about the city inquiring of their friends everywhere if 



LETTERS — THE TELEGRAPH. 29I 

they knew of a concert on that Tuesday night where such 
pieces were sung and such tunes were played. Nobody had 
any knowledge of the affair. At length one of the gentle- 
men published an article in the Providence Journal, describ- 
ing what he had heard through his telephone wire on that 
Tuesday evening, giving the date, and asking any one who 
could inform him what the concert was and where it was, to 
give him the desired information. Then it transpired that 
this concert was a telephonic experiment. 

The performers were at Saratoga, New York, and they 
were connected by a telephone wire with friends in New York 
City. The experim.ent had plainly demonstrated that the 
sounds made in singing and in playing numerous instruments 
could be clearly understood, by means of the telephone, from 
Saratoga to New York City. But it proved more than this. 
The vibrations in that telephone wire between Saratoga and 
New York induced the same vibrations in the parallel wire 
of the Western Union Telegraph Company. These vibra- 
tions were continued through New York City to Providence 
and onward. The private telephone line of these gentlemen 
was parallel to the wire of the Western Union Company 
which had been thus affected, and these vibrations were 
picked off from the telegraph wire and conveyed by this 
parallel telephone wire to the receivers at these three houses. 

What will be the next wonderful invention? The tele- 
graph transmits your thoughts and delivers them in writing ; 
the telephone transmits your thoughts and delivers them to 
the ear by sounds. Some day, perhaps, you may step into a 
cabinet in Boston and have your photograph taken in New 
York City by aid of an electric wire, the telephote. Just as 
the telephone transmits the sounds, the telephote may trans- 
mit the light and give not only light and shade, but the 
colors of the solar spectrum. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
CONCLUSION. 

We have now considered six groups of topics connected 
with the growth and development of our country. We have 
looked into the houses of the Indians and of the settlers in 
the colonial times, and into the larger and more elaborate 
homes of to-day. We have considered improved means of 
heating and better methods of lighting. We have noticed 
improvements in machinery for planting, cultivating, and 
harvesting the products of the soil. We have seen the great 
advance that has been made in the manufacture of our cloth- 
ing, through improved cotton and woolen machinery and the 
sewing machine. We have traveled by land and by water, 
at home and abroad, on foot, on horseback, in stagecoaches, 
by canals, steamboats, and railroads. Finally we have read 
and thought and studied about language, the printing press, 
our postal system, the telegraph and the telephone. 

We have seen our country when it was wholly east of the 
Mississippi River, whereas now it is extended even to the 
great western ocean. A century ago our territory embraced 
about eight hundred thousand square miles; now it is nearly 
five times as great, with large areas of recently acquired 
Spanish islands to be added to that. The population of the 
United States in 1790 was less than four millions; a hundred 
years later it was sixty-three millions. It is now probably 
between seventy and seventy-five millions. Our exports then 
were about fifty million dollars in value ; this year they are 



CONCLUSION. 293 

more than one thousand millions. A century since, we im- 
ported into this country goods to the value of about seventy 
million dollars. This was largely in excess of our exports. 
To-day our exports are of far greater value than our imports. 

At the beginning of our national government we were 
almost altogether engaged in the pursuits of agriculture. 
Now our people are largely massed in cities and large towns, 
while our mechanical and manufacturing interests are of 
immense proportions. 

A hundred years ago the people speaking the seven prin- 
cipal languages of Europe numbered about one hundred and 
fifty millions. To-day they number about four hundred 
millions. The present number is therefore almost three 
times that of a century ago. At that time the English-speak- 
ing people ranked fifth among the seven, and numbered but 
twenty millions. To-day they lead the list, and number one 
hundred and twenty millions ; there are six times as many 
people to-day using the English language as there were a 
century ago. The inhabitants of our country outnumber all 
other English-speaking people in the whole world. 

Our country occupies, all things considered, the best por- 
tion of the world. This includes the Atlantic slope, the 
great Mississippi basin, and the Pacific slope, and our whole 
territory, except our new colonial possessions, lies within the 
north temperate zone. We therefore have a great variety of 
soil and climate ; the soil is the most fertile and the climate 
the most salubrious of the whole earth. We have an almost 
infinite variety of productions and our people are engaged in 
the entire round of human industries. 

The United States has made vast strides in industry, in 
wealth, in intelligence, and in the comforts of life. Civiliza- 
tion has rapidly advanced during the whole of this century. 



294 AMERICAN INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS. 

If the great contest of the future is to be between the 
Anglo-Saxon race and the rest of the world, surely this great 
republic must have the leading position in that contest. 

The American people to-day form a nation of readers. 
In newspapers, magazines, and books of all sorts and upon 
every subject the American press is prolific. We have a 
system of public schools well established in every State and 
every Territory of our Union, and supported by taxation, and 
very generally the children are obliged by compulsory law^s 
to attend school. We are living in an age of great activity 
and rapid advancement. The young people of our republic 
who are attending school to-day are to be congratulated upon 
their good fortune ; and it becomes them to magnify their 
opportunities, to appreciate their advantages, and to be es- 
pecially loyal to their country, its government, and its in- 
stitutions. 



INDEX. 



-i^tna, 213 
Air brakes, 236 
Allen, Nicholas, 48 
Allston, Washington, 272 
Ancient writing, 249 
Arc light, 87 
Arnold, Edwin, 169 
Atlantic Telegraph Co., 281 
Automobile, 243 
Axe, 25 

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 226 

Baskerville, John, 254 

Bay-Path, 192 

Bell, Alexander. Graham, 286 

Bicycle, 243 

Binder, 120 

Blackstone canal, 221 

BouLTON and Watt, 179 

Brooklyn bridge, 239 

Brush, Charles Francis, 85 

BURLINGAME, AnSON, 288 



Carrying fire, 52 

Central Pacific Railroad, 228 

Chappe, Claude, 266 

Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, 

221 
Chicago and Alton Railroad, 236 
Chimneys, 31 
Clayton, John, 81 
"Clermont," 212-215 
"Clinton's big ditch," 221 
Coal, 44 ; anthracite, 47 ; bituminous, 

47: sea. 45 
Coffee, 139 

Colonial conditions, 143 
Colonial cooking, 29, 30 
Colonial homes, 24 
Con ANT, Roger, 124 
Cooking, colonial, 29, 30 
Corliss, George H., 175-179 
Corn, Indian, 105 
Cotton, 150-153 
Cotton gin, 148-151 



Cable, Atlantic, 278 
Cable cars, 242 
Cables, submarine, 284 
Cabot, John, 18 
Calashes, 201 
Canals, 215 
Candelabra, 71 
Candles, 67 
Canoe, 197 



Darling, Grace, 92 

Delaware and Hudson canal, 221 

Dinner, a modern, 131 

Dodge, John Adams, 174 

Drake, E. L., 78 

Dugout, 197 

DuNSTER. Rev, Henry, 254 

Dutch ovens, 27 

Dynamo, 85 



296 



INDEX. 



Edison, Thomas A., 86 
Electric cars, 242 
Electric lighting, 85 
Electrotyping. 257 
Eliot's Indian Bible, 254 
Ellsworth, Miss, 274 
Erie canal. 221 
Evans, Oliver, 209 

Fabius. 63 

Fairbanks, Richard, 259 

Faraday, Michael, 85 

Farmer, Moses G., 268 

Faust, John. 253 

Field, Cyrus W., 280 

Fire, 14 

Fire, carrying, 52 

Fireplace. Pennsylvania, 34 

Fireplaces, 26 

Fishing, whale, 73 

Fitch, John, 209 

Flail, iog-120 

Flax, 147 

Flint, 53 

Foods, uncultivated, 99 

Fork, 118 

Franklin, Benjamin, 34-68 

Franklin press, 255 

Franklin stove, 34 

Freight, cost of transportation, 2ii 

Fuel, 37 

Fulton, Robert, 210-272 

Furnaces, 36 

Gang plow, 114 

Gas, illuminating, 81 

Gasometer, 83 

Gideon, 63 

Gin, cotton, 148-151 

Gore, Obadiah, 48 

Greene, Nathaniel, 148 



Greenough, J. J., 175 
Grist mills, 145 
Grover, William O., 175 
Gutenberg, John, 254 

Hannibal, 63 

Harvesting, implements for, 117 

Heat, II 

Hennepin, Father, 46 

Hoe, 109 

Hoe perfecting press, 253 

Homes, colonial, 24 

Homes, Indian, 17 

Hood. Thomas, 173 

Horseback, 191 

Howe, Elias, 175 

Hunt, Walter, 175 

Illuminating gas, 81 

Implements for harvesting, 117; for 

planting, 11 1 
Incandescent light, 87 
Indian Bible, Eliot's, 254 
Indian corn, 105 
Indian homes, 17 
Inns, 205 
Iroquois, 19 
Irrigation, 127 

Jackson, Andrew, 156 
Jewel, Marshall, 170 

Kerosene, 77 

Kitchen, a New England, 10 

Knight, Sarah, 200 

Lamp, modern, 76 
Lamps, ancient, 65 
Language, 247 
Leather, 164 
Leifer, Thomas, 224 



INDEX. 



297 



Letters, 274 
Lewis, Ida, 94 
Light, arc, 87 
Lighthouses, go 
Lighting, electric, 85 
Linotype, 257 

Livingstone, Robert R., 212 
Log cabin, 26 

LONGSTREET, WlLLIAM, 20g 

Loom, 147 

Lord of Padua, 32 

Mail car, 262 

Matches, 51 

McCoRMicK, Cyrus H., 122 

Menlo Park, 87 

Message, first, across the Atlantic, 282 

Middlesex canal, 221 

Miles, General, in New Mexico, 268 

Modern land travel, 235 ; water travel, 

229 
Money orders, 261 
MoREY, Samuel. 209 
Morse, Samuel F. B., 270; his titles 

and honors, 276 
Mower, 117 

Murdoch, William, 82 
Myer, Major, 266 

Needles, 172 

NoTT, Eliphalet, 159 

Ogle. Henry, 122 
Oil wells, 79 
Ovens, Dutch, 27 

Padua, Lord of, 32 

Peck, General, at Suffolk, 267 

Pepper, 132 

Pme knots, 62 

Planter. 115 



Planting, implements for, iii 
Plow. 109-112 
Plow, sulky, 114 
Postage stamps, 261 
Postal system, 258 
Postmaster-general, 260 
Power of speech, 247 
Printing press. Franklin, 255 ; mod- 
ern, 246 
Prometheus, 15 
Pruning hook, 109 
Pullman sleeper, 237 

Queen of Sheba, 249 

Railroad train, old-style, 227 

Railroads, 223 

Rake, 118 

Raleigh, Walter, 106 

"Rand, Old Ma'am." 271 

Range, 36 

Reaper, 120 

Rumford, Count, 33-35 

Rumsey, James, 209 

Scholfield, Arthur, 160 
Scholfield. John, 160 
Scots Magazine, 269 
Scribe, ancient, 251 
Scythe, 109-117 
Sea coal, 45 

Sewing machines, 175, 176 
Shoemaker, Colonel, 48 
Signal station, Suffolk, 267 
Signaling, 265 
Singer, Isaac M., 175 
Slater, John F., 155, 156 
Slater, Samuel, 153 
Soil, 124 
Solomon, 249 
Sower, 114 



298 



INDEX. 



Sower, Christopher, 255 

Special delivery, 261 

Spotswood, Colonel, 260 

Squanto. 108 

Stagecoaches, 200 

vSteamboats, 207 

Steam engine, 178 

Stephenson, George, 225 

Stereotyping, 257 

Stevens, John, 209 

Stockton and Arlington Railway, 226 

Stoves, 36 

Subway,' Boston, 232 

Sulky plow, 114 

"Sully," packet ship, 272 

Suspension bridge. Niagara, 240 

Taverns, 206 
Telegraph, 270 
Telephone, 286 
Telephone incident, 23c 
Thimonier. Barthelemy, 176 
Thompson, Benjamin, 33 
Thomson, Elihu, 86 
Thresher, 121 



Threshing, 123 
Tinder box, 53 
Torches, 61 

Travel by horseback, 191 ; by land, 
187 ; by water, 194 

Uncultivated foods, 99 
Union Pacific Railroad, 228 
United States post offices, 264 
University press, 255 

Vestal Virgin, 14 
Victoria Jubilee, 284 
Vinegar, 135 

Walter press, 252 

Watt, James, 179 

Wells, oil, 79 

West, Benjamin, 272 

Westinghouse, George, Jr., 236 

Whale fishing, 73 

Whale oil, 72 

Whitman, Marcus, 168 

Whitney, Eli, 149 

Wilson, Allen B. ,-175 

Wool, 158 



First Steps in the History 
of Our Country. 

By WILLIAM A. MOWRY and ARTHUR MAY MCWRY. 



Few books are so fascinating and stirring to boys and girls, either 
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J20 Pages. 21 J Illustrations. Retail price ^ '/^ cents. 
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